KOLKATA: West Bengal government has decided to set up 55 oxygen plants in different state-run hospitals to deal with the crisis, apart from a series of other measures.
The plant will be set up by the public health engineering department in various state-run medical colleges and officers of PHE have already inspected some hospitals.
The decision was taken after it was found that due to oxygen paucity, many people have been dying in the state.
Already, Calcutta Medical College and Hospital has set up their own oxygen plant on the campus to deal with the crisis.
Senior health officials said till now officers have already set up two oxygen plants at Diamond Harbour Medical College and Cooch Behar Medical College and Hospital and three more units will be set up in June. According to the press release issued by the state government on an emergency basis, the state government has decided to set up liquid medical oxygen tanks in several state-run medical colleges to meet the need.
Meanwhile, the state government has already decided to provide piped oxygen supply to various state-run medical colleges. From May 20, in 41 state-run medical colleges, gas pipeline oxygen will be set up to address the crisis.
Industrial oxygen cylinders have been converted into medical oxygen cylinders and have been supplied to various hospital units in the past few weeks. It was decided that around 2,000 industrial oxygen cylinders will be converted into medical oxygen cylinders in the coming days.
Even various private sectors have donated 200 oxygen concentrators to the state government which have been distributed to various state-run hospitals in the wake of the oxygen crisis in the state to deal with the pandemic.
Bengal, on Saturday, recorded the highest single-day Covid deaths of 103 people and registered 17,512 fresh cases, according to the state health department.