The centre facilitated the import of 20 cryogenic tankers of 10 MT and 20 MT capacity and supplied them to states to tackle the scarcity of oxygen tankers in the nation resulting from alarming rise of covid case load.
The Union Health Ministry stated on 27th April that mapping of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) from manufacturing plants to different states is a dynamic process and transportation of supplemental oxygen through cryogenic tankers is apparently causing a bottleneck in making available LMO from the eastern part of the country to other areas.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) in consultation with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIt) with the aid of the Empowered Group-II have mapped the allocation of these containers to suppliers in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Delhi. This is expected to address the issue quickly and reduce the time taken for oxygen transportation.
This announcement was made at a time when covid caseload has surged to 1,76,36,307. The active cases in the current second COVID-19 wave in nation is expected to reach the count of 38-48 lakh between May 14-18 and daily new cases could peak to 4.4 lakh from May 4-8, as per a mathematical model presented by IIT scientists.