Coronavirus India Live Updates: Amid surge in COVID-19 infections, Centre on Sunday directed the states to ensure that the use of liquid oxygen is not allowed for any non-medical purpose, PTI reported. It also asked oxygen plants to maximise production and make oxygen available to it for medical use only with immediate effect, amid COVID surge. “Entire stock of liquid oxygen should be used for medical purposes, no exception to any industry,” said Central government.
The first Oxygen Express train for Delhi carrying around 70 tonnes of the public health commodity will depart from Jindal Steel Works plant in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh on Sunday night, a senior Railway official said. The train will reach Delhi with four tankers by Monday night, Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma said. He said that the railways has planned to transport medical oxygen from Angul, Kalingnagar, Rourkela and Raigarh to Delhi-NCR region, which is grappling with acute oxygen shortage amid rising Covid cases. The Delhi government has been asked to get road tankers ready to obtain the oxygen, he added.
Addressing the press on Sunday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that the lockdown in the National Capital would be extended by another week in view of a rising number of coronavirus cases. “The corona situation had worsened, which is why we started a 6-day lockdown last week, which ends tomorrow morning. With cases rising at a rapid rate, it was necessary for us to start a lockdown,” he said. “It was a weapon we wielded to fight the pandemic. Given that cases are still rising, we have consulted with the people of Delhi and decided to extend the lockdown by one more week.”
The PM CARES Fund has given in-principle approval for allocation of funds for the installation of 551 dedicated Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) Medical Oxygen Generation Plants inside public health facilities to address the oxygen crisis across the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed that these plants should be made functional as soon as possible. He said that these plants will serve as a major boost to oxygen availability at the district level.
India recorded 3,49,391 new Covid-19 cases and 2,767 deaths in the last 24 hours. According to the Union Health Ministry, five states — Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Kerala — contribute 54 per cent of the cases.
