Incentivise industries to set up new oxygen generation units: CM BS Yediyurappa

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Wednesday requested the Centre to incentivise industries to set up new oxygen generation units, as he voiced concern about the ability to supply sufficient medical oxygen, without affecting industries, in case of spike in COVID cases.

He was speaking while taking part in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's video conference with CMs of seven states that have high prevalence of COVID-19 cases

The Chief Minister briefed him about the steps taken by the State Government to control the virus. He said the consumption of oxygen was increasing drastically due to an increase in the number of oxygenated beds and ICUs.

Availability for liquid oxygen for medical purposes was now around 375 metric ton per day, which was sufficient for the time being, the Chief Minister's Office said in a release quoting him.

However, once the project of increasing the number of oxygenated beds was over and there was a surge in the number of cases, the state government would not be able to provide enough medical oxygen without affecting industries, he said.

Stating that the peak demand of medical oxygen is calculated at about 870 metric tons per day,the release said, keeping this in view,it was requested that the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion may be advised to persuade and incentivize industry to set up oxygen generation units.

A request was also made that the manufacture of hospital-level oxygen generation units be encouraged to ramp up production capacity, it said, adding that at present, these firms were asking for 3-4 months time to supply such units.

Yediyurappa informed the PM about setting up state level and district level teams of senior officers to ensure that oxygen is transported state-wide to needy hospitals tin time.

Permission to convert Industrial oxygen cylinders as Medical cylinders has also been issued.

Work on increasing storage capacity in hospitals that have a deficiency has been taken up on a war footing,he added.

The Chief Minister said the state had about 7,000 oxygenated beds in government hospitals when the virus first struck.

This has been increased to about 18,000, of which 10,000 have been reserved for COVID-19 patients, he said.

Apart from this, another 4,250 oxygenated beds have been reserved for COVID patients in private hospitals, he added.

Karnataka on Wednesday reported 6,997 new COVID-19 cases and 38 fatalities, taking the infection tally to 5,40,847 and the toll to 8,266, the health department said.

The day also saw 5,460 patients getting discharged after recovery. Out of 6,997 fresh cases reported on Wednesday, 3,547 were from Bengaluru urban alone. As of September 23 evening, cumulatively 5,40,847 COVID- 19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 8,266 deaths and 4,37,910 discharges, the health department said in its bulletin.

Out of 94,652 active cases, 93,836 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 816 are in Intensive Care Units. Twenty three out of 38 deaths reported were from Bengaluru urban, followed by Shivamogga (7), Bengaluru Rural (6) and Vijayapura (2). Most of the deceased either had a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) or Influenza-like illness (ILI).

Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru urban accounted for 3,547, Mysuru 341, Hassan 315, Chikkamagaluru 252, Mandya 203, Ballari 192, Belagavi 191, followed by others.

Bengaluru urban district topped the list of cases with a total of 2,04,275 infections, followed by Mysuru 31,092 and Ballari 29,652. Among discharges too, Bengaluru urban was on top with total 1,61,565 discharges, followed by Mysuru 26,051 and Ballari 25,111. A total of 43,94,840 samples were tested so far, out of which 56,398 were on Wednesday alone. Among the samples tested today 21,394 were Rapid Antigen Tests.