Assam
Assam is now consuming 20 MT of oxygen against its production capacity of 61 MT per day: Himanta Biswa Sarma
Guwahati: Assam Health minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma said the state is comfortable about oxygen supply in next 10 days as the state is consuming 20 MT per day against its production capacity of 61 MT per day.
Himanta Biswa Sarma said that as of now Assam is consuming 20 MT of oxygen per day.
“During the effort in last 10 days where we have rejuvenated some of our old oxygen plants and also established PSA plants in medical colleges and civil hospitals, our oxygen generation capacity has now been increased up to 61 MT per day against the daily requirement of 20 MT per day as of now. We have also enhanced our oxygen storage capacity to 468 MT,” Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
The minister also said that construction works of an oxygen plant with a production capacity of 50 MT are going on at Samdrup Jongkhar in Bhutan along Assam-Bhutan border and the Union government has discussed with the Bhutan government for this.
On Sunday, state’s junior health minister Pijush Hazarika and Rajya Sabha MP Biswajit Daimari had visited the site and once it is completed Assam will get 50 MT of oxygen per day which will be highly beneficial to combat COVID-19.
Himanta Biswa Sarma also said that, Assam has now sufficient stock of Remdesivir and the state government has a decent stock of 25,000 vials of Remdesivir.
“The state government is not only giving Remdesivir injections to its own hospital, we are also helping the people who are in nursing home provided that they don’t charge more than Rs 1568 per vials,” Dr Sarma said.
The Assam Health minister on Sunday had visited drug manufacture Sun Pharma plant at Palasbari in Kamrup (Rural) district and requested the drug manufacturer Sun Pharma to expedite the production at its Palasbari plant to 80,000 vials per week.
Himanta Biswa Sarma also said that, the state government has increased ICU bed, oxygen bed facilities in the medical colleges and other government-run hospitals.
“We have been able to add a substantial number of ICU bed in last 10 days. Almost 220 more ICU beds have been added. Assam will be in a comfortable position for next 10 days,” Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
On the other hand, the Assam government on Monday has ordered closure of schools for the students of Classes 6 to 8 in districts where the number of active COVID-19 cases have crossed the 100 COVID-19 cases mark.
“We had issued a notification last week closing down elementary schools up to Class 5. Today, we have issued another notification closing down elementary schools up to Class 8. So, all schools up to Class 8 will remain close, provided that the district has total number of 100 COVID-19 cases in last 10 days. Deputy Commissioner (DCs) of districts, where active COVID19 cases cross 100 on a particular day, have been authorized to suspend physical classroom assembly of students of Class 6 to 8 in private and government schools. Online classes will be made available,” Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
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