COVID-19: Oxygen shortage creates panic at AIIMS Rishikesh, dozens of patients shifted to another ward

Due to the increasing number of COVID-19 patients and shortage of oxygen, lives of several coronavirus patients admitted at AIIMS Rishikesh was saved on Tuesday night by shifting them to another ward and oxygen was arranged from BHEL Haridwar.

Rishikesh AIIMS Director Dr Ravikant said, "Due to increasing number of patients and shortage of oxygen, there was a problem of low pressure in the oxygen line on Tuesday evening and about three dozen patients were shifted to another ward and given oxygen through cylinders."

According to the director, AIIMS has the capacity to store 30 thousand litres of oxygen, which is being increased. These days around 12 thousand litres of oxygen is being consumed daily in AIIMS.

District Magistrate Haridwar C Ravishankar arranged oxygen from BHEL to AIIMS in view of the emergency arising out of oxygen shortage at the hospital.

Earlier, five people died in a private hospital in Roorkee due to oxygen shortage.

Earlier on April 28, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat had said the state has a sufficient amount of oxygen and even supplied a little to other states.

Hospitals in several states are grappling with the shortage of oxygen due to a surge in COVID-19 cases. The central government has been importing oxygen concentrators and oxygen generation equipment from various countries to meet the ever-growing medical oxygen demand.

Indian Railways is also running 'Oxygen Express' trains to transport liquid medical oxygen and oxygen cylinders across the country. Roll-on-roll-off trucks are being transported on flat wagons by the trains for a quick supply of medical oxygen across the country.

( With inputs from ANI )