PUNE: The daily oxygen demand across Pune district has grown slightly to 90-95 metric tonnes (MT) as compared to the 85-90 MT in a week-ago period, with Food and Drug Administration officials (FDA) claiming preparedness to meet any jump in oxygen demand.
Across Pune division, the total demand for oxygen stands at around 125 MT, the FDA official said.
Pratap Pawar, assistant commissioner, FDA Pune, told TOI, “The rise in demand is just around 5-10 MT in the past few days. The manufacturers have already been alerted to keep the 100% quota of medical oxygen available. The private and government hospitals too have been asked to refill the storage tanks of the liquid medical oxygen at the earliest.”
Pawar said a reminder on oxygen storage and refilling was sent to all the hospitals on January 14. “Government hospitals should keep at least 60% oxygen quota available if not 100%. However, there are many hospitals that have merely 30% quota at present,” he said.
Pawar said there were three liquid medical oxygen manufacturers with a daily oxygen production capacity of around 250 MT in the district. PCMC chief Rajesh Patil said the oxygen demand in the civic limits had not increased and they were monitoring the situation.
