The Centre, which is facing ire of courts for dire shortage of oxygen in the capital and elsewhere, on Wednesday installed two oxygen plants at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital in New Delhi. The plants, funded by the PMCARES fund, were airlifted from Coimbatore and are expected to start supplying oxygen from Wednesday evening, an official statement said.

It is to be noted that PMCARES has allocated funds for installing 500 medical oxygen plants across the country. “These plants are planned to be set up within 3 months. In all, five high flow medical oxygen plants will be installed at AIIMS Trauma Centre, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML), Safdarjung Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College, and AIIMS, Jhajjar, Haryana,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, in the wake of recent fire incidents, the Home Ministry asked States to conduct a detailed review with officials from the Health, Power and Fire Departments, and prepare a detailed plan of action to ensure that fire, safety measures are in place in all hospitals and health facilities, whether private or government, in their respective States. It also urged them to ensure uninterrupted supply of power in all hospitals and medical facilities.

India reported record-high deaths on Wednesday due to Covid 19 infection. The daily death toll increased to 3,780 till 8 am and this is the eighth straight day when the single day-deaths crossed the 3,000-mark, according to the Health Ministry data. Meanwhile, the country registered more than 3 lakh daily Covid cases on the 14th straight day at 3,82,315. Cumulatively, total infections stood at 2,0,6,65,148 till 8 am on Wednesday, of which active cases were 34,87229, those who recovered were 1,69,51,731 and the total deaths reported so far stood at 2,26,188.

Meanwhile, the country administered 16,04,94,188 anti-covid jabs so far with 14,84,989 shots given in the last 24 hours. Furthermore, total number of Covid tests done the previous day stood at 15,41,299.

Under the phase 3 vaccination drive for the 18-44 age group 6,71,285 beneficiaries received their first dose of COVID vaccine across 12 States - Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana , Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and UP, the government said.

Besides this, the government has so far provided around 17.02 crore vaccine doses to States for free of which, the total consumption including wastages stood at 16,07,94,796 shots.

“More than 94.47 lakh covid vaccine doses (94,47,614) are still available with the States/UTs to be administered. Furthermore, more than 36 lakh (36,37,030) vaccine doses will be received in addition by the States/UTs within the next 3 days,” the health Ministry said on Wednesday.

comment COMMENT NOW