Srinagar: Oxygen production capacity has been enhanced from 14916 to 90300 lpm in J&K post COVID-19.
“With intervention of Lieutenant Governor’s administration and a good support from Government of India, the JK dispensation had been able to enhance its oxygen production capacity from 14916 lpm in August, 2020 to 90300 lpm capacity at present.
The UT had 24 oxygen plants in August, 2020 and 87 plants more plants had been added since then,” an official press release said.
The Jammu and Kashmir government also received a consignment of nine Medical Oxygen Generation Plants. The state-of-the-art Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) Oxygen Generation plants, manufactured in Europe, were airlifted from Frankfurt, Germany by Indian Air Force C-17 cargo plane on 5th June and delivered at Srinagar Airport today morning.
Five of these new plants with a generation capacity of 4000 LPM were installed in the hospitals of Kashmir and the remaining four with a generation capacity of 4400 LPM were installed in Jammu hospitals. The earlier consignment of 7 plants was also brought in by the Indian Air Force plane.
According to official figures, Jammu and Kashmir has been the leader in Covid vaccination with administration of both the doses to 100 per cent population of above 18 years. Similarly, the population of the age group of 15-18 years of age was covered 100 per cent with the first dose.
As Covid cases started surging, J&K like other states found itself struggling to contain the pandemic in all its forms. As the second wave struck, the demand for medical oxygen soared and tragic scenes unfolded with people struggling to access the life saving commodity. The sudden spurt in demand was compounded by the concentration of oxygen production in far eastern areas of the country. The number of cryogenic tankers needed to transport Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) was too few to cope with the sudden spike in demand from other places to J&K.
The government responded in several ways: additional tankers were brought from outside, supply of oxygen was geo-mapped and an online system was established to track the real time movement of the commodity.