Hyderabad: Drop in oxygen demand as corona cases dip

Hyderabad: The demand for oxygen has dipped sharply in the city indicating an improvement in the Covid-19 situation. Moreover, compared to the last week about 40 per cent of oxygen demand has come down.

The Oxygen allocation is driven by a formula that about 10-12 per cent of active cases need an oxygen supply. Thanks to the ongoing Covid-induced lockdown that the daily demand of oxygen has dipped within a week. Amid shortage of oxygen and surge in Covid-19 cases in the last two months, industries with oxygen plants and refillers were roped in to meet the demand by diverting supplies for medical use and banning use of oxygen for industrial purposes except pharmaceutical firms. And the government's prompt action for providing metric tonnes of oxygen and the support of non-government organisations have relieved the patients in the city.

Meanwhile those NGOs and social workers who are supplying oxygen claimed that the calls for oxygen have dropped. City-based NGO Sakina Foundation who delivered over 5000 oxygen cylinders for free in the past two months said, "During the last month we used to supply more than 300 oxygen cylinders in and around the city but now the supply has come down to 200 cylinders every day," said Asif Hussain Sohail founder of the foundation.

"Now the cases have decline compare to the last one month, the government has taken prompt action to control the spread. But the government needs to tighten their show lace to fight the third wave, for which they first need to fix the prices of oxygen cylinders as black markets are selling them at exorbitant prices," he added.

Meanwhile a large number of home isolation patients are keeping cylinders in stock to use in case of emergency. "A lot of people are calling us for oxygen cylinders just to be on a safer side. Following which we are asking for the video showing oxygen levels and only if the level falls below 85 the cylinder is supplied." Moreover, Asif pointed out that over 100 oxygen cylinder and 45 oxygen concentrators are with people and they are not ready to give it back.

While another social worker Mohd Sujathullah said that since the lockdown Covid cases witnessed dip. "Earlier we use to get around 200 calls for oxygen cylinder but now we are hardly receiving 50 calls. However we have stocked up 100 big oxygen cylinders to use in case of emergency," he added. He further said that though the condition is stable the demand for oxygen concentrators is spiked.