Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
A TOTAL of 41 hospitals are awaiting approval from the district administration to operate as Dedicated COVID Hospitals (DCHs) due non-supply of medical Oxygen. The administration is presently concentrating on ensuring oxygen supply to the already established COVID hospitals. “Permission has not been given to these hospitals so far to cater to daily medical oxygen demand of the already established hospitals,” said District Collector Ravindra Thakre.
Thakre informed ‘The Hitavada’ that the 41 hospitals with capacity of more than 1,024 beds have applied to operate as COVID hospital with medical oxygen supply. Claiming that the administration was facing problems to sanction supply to the hospitals, Thakre said that facility of oxygen beds was ramped up in the district as well as in the city.
“Nagpur city has around 9,000 beds and 2,000 have been added in hospitals in the districts at tehsil levels. These new facilities require regular supply of medical oxygen which the administration is providing at war-footing level,” the Collector said.
“The district is not receiving ample supply of oxygen from Bhilai which is the nearest place,” he said. “If we give permission to a new hospital, then we would have to manage supply of medical oxygen on a regular basis. This cannot be done immediately due to neck-to-neck oxygen supply situation,” Thakre added.
“If the hospitals set up their own oxygen generation plants or arrange oxygen concentrators on their own, then only the administration will think of giving them permission,” Thakre stated.
Nagpur city and district require 150 MT oxygen per day while 50 MT oxygen is being supplied to Wardha, Bhandara, Chandrapur, Gondia, Yavatmal, Amravati, Akola and even Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh. All these hospitals have been getting oxygen supply from Nagpur for last 10 years. The suppliers are now finding it difficult to cater to the increased demand in wake of the second wave of the pandemic prevailing in the region.
Thakre cited example of Kasturba Hospital, Sevagram, Wardha whose normal requirement was just 200 oxygen cylinders. After the outbreak of COVID-19, the demand surged to 800 cylinders and now they have made a demand for 300 more cylinders, Thakre claimed.
New facility with capacity of 700 cylinders next week
Collector Thakre informed that Sunvijay Industries, Butibori, has taken initiative to provide medical oxygen to the city. The new facility with a capacity of 700 cylinders of medical oxygen will become operational from next Wednesday, he said.
4 empty oxygen tankers airlifted from Nagpur
In many districts of Vidarbha including Nagpur, a large number of COVID-19 patients need oxygen and the administration has now decided to import oxygen from Odisha. For this, four empty oxygen tankers were airlifted by a special plane of Indian Air Force from Nagpur on Wednesday. The tankers are expected to return to Nagpur by train in the next 20 hours.
As per information given by District Collector Ravindra Thakre, 110 metric tonnes of oxygen is being supplied to Nagpur from Bhilai on a regular basis and the supply will continue. However, in view of the increasing demand, Nagpur will get an additional 110 metric tonnes of oxygen in the next twenty to twenty-five hours from the steel plant at Angul near Bhubaneswar.
Nagpur received 93 metric tonnes of oxygen on May 1, 220 metric tonnes on May 2, 111 metric tonnes on May 3, 60 metric tonnes on May 4 and 118 metric tonnes on May 5.
The government needs a large amount of funds to tackle the COVID-19 crisis. A large amount of funds is being raised at the local level for this purpose and all the business entrepreneurs in Nagpur district have been asked for a social responsibility fund. A letter signed by the Collector has been sent to all the entrepreneurs.
In this emergency situation, large quantities of oxygen, medicine and other basic necessities have to be procured. As the number of patients continues to grow, these essential facilities will be needed in the near future. Therefore, it has been appealed that professional organisations should generously help the district administration, the letter states.
COVID care centre at Haj house
A COVID care centre has become operational at Haj house in Nagpur with the initiative of Guardian Minister Dr. Nitin Raut. Minority. The building has 40 rooms and can accommodate about seven hundred people. As per instructions, necessary infrastructure facilities will be provided at this place soon, said District Collector Thakre.
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