The demand for oxygen at Patna’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has gone up more than four times in two months from 2,000 kilo litres in February-March to 9,000 kilo litres a day amid the country-wide shortage of the life saving gas to treat Covid-19 patients, said hospital superintendent, Dr CM Singh.
“We have requested our oxygen supplier in Kolkata for daily replenishment of stock to have sufficient liquid oxygen available in the 30,000-kilo litre capacity oxygen tank at our institute,” said Dr Singh. The Centre has allocated Bihar a daily quota of 214 metric tonnes of medical oxygen, but it was able to lift only 167 metric tonnes because of logistic issues.
Dr Sanjeev Kumar, nodal officer for Covid-19 at the hospital said the oxygen demand was never so high even during August last year, when Covid-19 cases had spiked during the first wave of the pandemic. “This clearly points to the increased requirement of oxygen among Covid-19 patients during the second wave,” he said.
At the peak of the first wave, Bihar registered 4,071 cases on August 11 which is little more than 25% of the 15,853 cases registered on May 1 this year during the second wave of the pandemic.
The AIIMS has so far admitted over 5,000 Covid patients since March 22 last year, when it reported the first case at its institute. 90 days later on July 10, it was declared a dedicated Covid-19 hospital. It had resumed full OPD and general services only on February 15 this year.
Of the total 538,677 Covid-19 cases reported in Bihar so far, the state has 113,479 active cases as on Tuesday. It has also recorded 2,987 Covid deaths till now. Patna has been the worst affected district with 115,183 cases and 862 deaths.
