Union Minister for Minority Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, on Monday inaugurated a medical oxygen plant at the Bilaspur community health centre in Rampur, saying the government was committed to providing better facilities to the people.
Speaking on the occasion, Naqvi said that these six medical oxygen plants with a capacity of producing 20 cubic metre of medical oxygen per hour had been commissioned by Radico Khaitan at the community health centers in Bilaspur (Rampur), Bilhaur (Kanpur Dehat), Bhagwantpur (Prayagraj), Mahoba (Mahoba), Manjhanpur (Kaushambi) and one was being established at Manikpur (Chitrakoot).
“The administration, by providing better facilities and resources and by precaution and self-restraint by society, the country can be freed from the coronavirus pandemic,” he said.
The minister said that when the first wave of novel coronavirus came in India in 2020, there was a lack of resources in the country to deal with this pandemic but within a year, India became self-sufficient in ventilators, medicines, PPE kits, N-95 masks, testing laboratories for coronavirus, ICU beds, Covid dedicated hospitals, medical oxygen etc.
He said the production of medical oxygen had been increased from 900 MT per day before January 2020 to over 9,000 MT per day.
Naqvi said that at present India had indigenous production capacity of more than 10 lakh coronavirus test kits per day.
He said before the lockdown last year, only 2,000 ICU beds were available, which had now increased to over 85,000. He said more than 20,000 ICU beds were being added across the country, of which 20 per cent beds would be paediatric ICU beds. He said paediatric units were being set up in all 736 districts of the country.
“Taking up the challenges of coronavirus, the government has taken unprecedented steps and has provided free ration to 80 crore people across the country. About eight crore families have been given free cooking gas cylinders and Rs 1,500 have been sent to the bank accounts of 20 crore women,” he said.