KASARAGOD: Karnataka has decided to stop supplying oxygen to Kasaragod because of the rising cases of coronavirus in Dakshina Kannada.
In a letter to collector D Sajith Babu, his counterpart in Dakshina Kannada Rajendra K V said it did not have extra oxygen to supply to Kasaragod. The hospitals in Dakshina Kannada consumed around 30 tonnes of oxygen per day and the district did not have any to spare for Kasaragod, he said.
One main reason for the scarcity was the stoppage of supply of oxygen from Inox Air Products at Kanjikode in Palakkad to Dakshina Kannada. Earlier, the deputy commissioner told the hospitals in Kasaragod that oxygen would be supplied if they were authorised by the collector.
"New Covid cases have been on the rise unabated with a high positivity rate in Dakshina Kannada. We also have many patients from Kerala in various hospitals of Dakshina Kannada district and most of them are being treated on ICU ventilators. The daily consumption of oxygen in the hospitals of the district is around 30 tonnes per day. Liquid medical oxygen supplies from Inox Palakkad have stopped towards our refillers disrupting the entire supply chain," he said.
As of now, Dakshina Kannada gets oxygen from Bellary.
The deputy commissioner asked the Kasaragod collector to instruct hospitals dependent on refilling of oxygen from Mangaluru to make alternative arrangements.