The Centre on Friday directed the States to ensure uninterrupted movement of medical oxygen carrying vehicles along their borders, and said they must not impose any curb on production and supply of the essential public health commodity anywhere. Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla’s communication to chief secretaries of all States and Union Territories came in the wake of reports of shortage of the medical oxygen for Covid-19 patients in different parts of the country in the last few days.
The Home Secretary along with his Health counterpart Rajesh Bhushan chaired high-level meetings to review status of Covid-19 in Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh and the public health measures taken for containment and management of Covid-19 by the State health authorities. Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, Dr. Balram Bhargava, DG ICMR, Dr (Prof) Sunil Kumar, DGHS were also present along with Chief Secretaries, DGs of State Police and Health Secretaries of both States.
“Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh along with Maharashtra are the only three States in the country which have more than one lakh active cases. Both Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh are reporting very high number of daily new Covid-19 cases and high deaths caused by Covid-19. Chhattisgarh has reported nearly 6.2% increase in weekly new Covid cases based on 7 day moving average. In last two weeks, the State has seen almost 131% increase in weekly new cases. 22 districts in Chhattisgarh have crossed their reported highest cases in the last 30 days; Raipur, Durg, Rajnandgaon and Bilaspur are the most affected districts. In contrast to the week 17th-23rd March 2021, in the week of 7th-13thApril 2021, RT-PCR tests have decreased to 28% (from 34%) while the Antigen Tests have increased to 62% (from 53%).
“Uttar Pradesh has reported a growth rate of 19.25% in daily new cases. 46 districts in Uttar Pradesh have crossed their reported highest cases in the last 30 days; Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi and Prayagraj are the most affected districts. In contrast to the week 17th-23rd March 2021, in the week of 7th-13th April 2021, RT-PCR tests have decreased to 46% (from 48%) while Antigen tests have increased to 53% (from 51%),” said the Home Ministry in a statement.
The Home Secretary emphasised that medical oxygen is an essential public health commodity and any impediment in its supply in the country may critically impact the management of patients suffering from COVID-19 disease in other parts of the country. “Therefore, you are requested to ensure that no such restriction is imposed on the movement of medical oxygen between the states and UTs, and transport authorities shall be instructed to accordingly allow free inter-state movement of oxygen carrying vehicles,” the letter said.
Bhalla told the states that no curb shall be imposed on oxygen manufacturers and suppliers to limit the oxygen supplies only to the hospitals of the state in which they are located and there shall be free movement of oxygen carrying vehicles into the cities, without any restriction of timings, while also enabling inter-city supply without restriction.