Maharashtra govt urges Centre for supply of oxygen from nearby states

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said the state has requested the Centre for the supply of oxygen for medical use from nearby states.

"12 metric tonnes of oxygen is produced and over 7 tonnes of oxygen is consumed daily. We've urged that we should be supplied medical oxygen from the nearby states. If a need arises, we'll close down the industries that use oxygen but won't let the supply of medical oxygen be affected," Tope said.

"We are working on various technologies for obtaining oxygen for medical purpose. I came across a technology on Tuesday which can absorb oxygen from open air. That will also decrease the need for liquified and pressurised oxygen," the Minister added.

Tope further said that the state government is also looking to speed up the setting up of oxygen plants proposed in Mumbai, Palghar and other areas.

He also lauded the state government for keeping the vaccine wastage rate to just three per cent against the national rate of six per cent.

Slamming the Opposition, the Minister said that nobody should do politics over a public health crisis adding that they shouldn't provoke people for protests against restrictions.

"If there is some need for relaxations, our government will consider in due course of time. The Chief Minister has appealed this and Devendra Fadnavis also supported it," he said.

Speaking about the issues regarding Tribitron's ventilators being out of function, he said that the company's ventilators are not functional due to technical issues and they have requested to train our technicians to look for the technical issues in those Ventilators.

On Wednesday, Maharashtra reported 55,469 new COVID-19 cases and 297 deaths.

The active number of cases in the state stands at 4,72,283. The death toll in the state has gone up to 56,330.