The Kasaragod district which is facing an acute oxygen cylinder shortage owing to a surge in the COVID-19 cases is encouraging industries, small institutions and companies to step forward and provide D-type cylinders (7,000 liter capacity) with them by initiating an ‘Oxygen cylinder challenge’.
District panchayat president Baby Balakrishnan said that the challenge was suggested in the District Disaster Management Authority meeting considering the growing requirement of oxygen cylinders in the hospitals.
There is a requirement of over 370 oxygen cylinders to mitigate the current crisis, but there are not enough cylinders to refill the oxygen. If there are enough cylinders they can keep it as a buffer stock to meet the growing demand, she told The Hindu.
Now the situation is such that many hospitals, who are directly sending vehicles have to wait for a long time to get the cylinders refilled. But that gets exhausted quite soon as the COVID-19 cases are increasing rapidly.
Even though there is enough capacity to produce oxygen, the oxygen plants have expressed that they are unable to deliver due to shortage of cylinders.
The other reason for initiating the challenge was to encourage the industries, companies and other institutions, which are using the D-type cylinders but have kept it idle due to lockdown, to step forward and help the hospitals which require these cylinders.
However, after the challenge has been initiated, mainly through social media like Whatsapp group and Facebook, several people have come forward. So far they have recieved 37 cylinders and many more are coming forward, she said.
Interestingly, there are many others who have expressed their wish to donate money for purchasing the cylinders. But as they cannot directly take money, they have taken the issue with the District Collector to start an account or other ways to collect these amounts for the purchase of cylinders, she added.
