NASHIK: The civic body has decided to increase the liquid medical oxygen storage capacity in the city up to three times than the daily requirement for hospitals run by it and private entities.
During the second wave of the pandemic, the requirement of medical oxygen in city was 80 tonnes per day. The civic body has decided to increase the buffer stock of medical oxygen up to 240 tonnes amid fears of a third wave of the pandemic.
It had decided to increase the medical oxygen storage capacity up to 169 tonnes, whiele the remaining 71 tonnes would come through Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants and cylinders. However, the state government instructed local governing bodies to ensure three-times storage capacity should be done through liquid medical oxygen tanks. Accordingly, NMC has decided to increase the liquid medical oxygen storage capacity up to 240 tonnes per day.
At present, the NMC and private hospitals have liquid medical oxygen capacity of 100 tonnes. Officials said 50 tonnes come from NMC hospitals and the rest from the private Covid health hubs
The NMC will procure more liquid medical oxygen tanks with a total capacity of 100 tonnes. The private hospitals will make similar arrangements, too.
“We have started efforts to increase the liquid medical oxygen storage and floated a tender to procure tanks with a total capacity of 50 tonnes,” Nashik municipal commissioner Kailas Jadhav said on Friday.
The city had reported 80,717 Covid positive cases during the first wave. However, the second wave has so far witnessed 1.47 lakh cases since March 1.
