Despite Government Stepping In, Oxygen Shortage A Big Challenge Is COVID-Hit Agra

AGRA || Oxygen shortage is proving the biggest challenge in the treatment of Covid-19 patients in Agra. After a hue and cry the state government late Monday evening directed district administrations to divert Oxygen from industrial use to hospitals.

The Agra branch IMA secretary Dr Sanjay Chaturvedi said "for the last few days this shortage problem has been there. We called a meeting of suppliers to understand the bottlenecks and sort out issues and asked the suppliers Radhika of Aligarh and Universal of Mathura to maintain the supply for at least the next few days and stop industrial supply for some days till the situation improves".

A new plant Sambahavi, is coming up at Amal Kheda. The IMA is keeping a record of the total supply and availability of Oxygen in Agra. We have also convinced suppliers to follow the government rate tariff, it has been informed to us, he added. According to an estimate by the private doctors, against a demand of 1100 cylinders of Oxygen daily, the supply had gone down to below 500.

The continuous surge in fresh cases of Covid-19 in the Agra region is causing alarm, as life is struggling to return to normalcy. While Agra reported 111 fresh cases, Mathura reported 66, Firozabad 71, Mainpuri 42, Etah 9, Kasganj 17. Two deaths have been reported from Mathura. In Agra, the death toll has gone up to 115.

Agra's tally now stands at 4153, so far 3223 have recovered. The number of active cases is 815.

The Agra Civil Court premises have been sealed for two days after a dozen staffers tested positive. Two doctors of the SN Medical College too were found positive and have been isolated. So far 1,52087 samples have been tested.

Avoidable delay in Covid-19 testing and filing reports is also causing a lot of heart-burning and resentment as treatment is pointlessly delayed. It is not clear why the rapid antigen test reports are also being delayed, victims allege. The health department officials however deny the charges and assure everyone that they were doing their best in the circumstances.

The private laboratories which were earlier allowed to conduct tests have again been refused permission. People are now entirely dependent on government facilities which in the circumstances are proving inadequate to cope with the rising graph of patients.