Avg daily demand for medical oxygen down 20% in April as surgeries decline

Despite this, govt is allowing industrial oxygen manufacturers to make the gas for medical use in order to avoid the kind of shortage seen in developed countries following the pandemic

During the first week of April, the National Health Service in the United Kingdom had written to all hospitals to report the availability of medical oxygen immediately, worried about a serious shortage in that country following the Covid-19 outbreak. A similar scarcity was reported in the United States, Italy and Germany, after the daily consumption of oxygen tripled in these countries.

In India, however, the consumption of medical oxygen has shown an average drop of over 20 per cent to 700 tonnes a day in April from over 900 tonnes last year. Despite this, the government of India has decided