Maharashtra health department and the transport department have tied up with the Food and Drug Administration to tackle the severe shortage of oxygen supply at hospitals in the state.

The state has procured tankers from other states to overcome the crisis.

Maharashtra has two main suppliers, Inox Air Products and Linde India, which together produce 800 metric ton liquid oxygen every day. Inox has four plants in Raigad, Pune and Nagpur. Linde has two plants in Raigad and Thane. Transportation of supplies to Marathwada and North Maharashtra takes a day straining hospitals in these regions.

Owing to the sudden shortage, several Maharashtra districts are now in the process of installing their own oxygen generation plants to cut dependence on suppliers. District collectors are working to set up their own oxygen plants in Osmanabad, Beed, Nandurbar and Pimpri Chinchwad. More districts are set to issue tender for oxygen plants.
Rural Maharashtra’s arid regions like Latur are now suffocating too. As coronavirus cases rise sharply across the state, a severe shortage of medical oxygen supply has hit COVID-19 care in the region. Oxygen forms the core of COVID management and a shortage has left both doctors and patients struggling.

While oxygen shortage has hit many parts of the country, Maharashtra with the highest COVID-19 case load is facing a severe crisis. There are over 11 lakh cases in the state and nearly 50 percent of COVID-19 cases are now from semi-urban and rural areas outside of Mumbai, Pune and Thane. Nearly 11 percent COVID-19 patients in the state need oxygen support and this is putting pressure on the medical oxygen demand and supply.

Latur district has close to 14,000 COVID-19 cases. The government hospital currently has a capacity of 6,000 litres of oxygen, of which 5,000 litres are used daily. The crisis has hit private hospitals worse with supplies dipping to a third.

Meanwhile, in another step to tackle the situation, the Maharashtra government said, vehicles carrying oxygen for Covid patients will be treated on par with the ambulance service for the next one year.

“The Government of Maharashtra hereby declares that the vehicles permitted for carrying oxygen for medical purposes shall be treated on par with ambulance for a period of one year during such disaster and thereby treating such vehicles as the vehicle on emergency and disaster management duties,” an order from the Maharashtra government read.

Earlier in a statement in parliament, Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said the country is “self-sufficient” in oxygen and oxygen cylinders. “The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has procured and supplied 1,02,400 oxygen cylinders to various states and Union Territories so far,” the minister said.