High production, low demand drives Kerala's oxygen surplus

While many states are facing an oxygen shortage due to the surge in Covid-19, Kerala is heaving a sigh of relief as the state does not have any oxygen crisis as of now, despite the steep escalation of Covid-19 cases.

The state has doubled the oxygen production over the last year anticipating a worst-case scenario for Covid-19. Also, comparatively, serious patients requiring oxygen are less as against other states.

State health department sources said that while the daily oxygen production in Kerala was only 99 metric tonnes last March, but now it is over 200 metric tonnes (MT). The Kerala Medical Service Corporation is aiming at increasing it to 250 MT soon.

Kerala Covid-19 taskforce member Dr Mohammed Asheel told DH that while the state did not face any oxygen crisis, now the state needs to be cautious as the demand is going up gradually. While the daily medical oxygen requirement was 73 MT last week, now it is 84 MT.

He added that compared to other states, the oxygen requirement for Covid-19 care in Kerala is comparatively low, mainly because the Covid-19 infected are being identified at the initial stages and given proper treatment.

Read: Kerala's active Covid-19 cases double, cross 2-lakh mark in one week

The timely detection and treatment strategy of Covid-19 care in Kerala is also being cited as the reason for the low Covid-19 death rate in Kerala, which is only 0.37% now.

Sources said that now, the daily oxygen requirement in the neighbouring Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is over 1,000 MT and 300 MT respectively.

Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation deputy chief controller of explosives R Venugopal said that Kerala now has 519.41 MT liquid oxygen stock. Agencies in the state are regularly supplying 16 MT oxygen to Karnataka and 70 MT to Tamil Nadu.

Oxygen storage capacity at the government medical colleges in the state was augmented over the last few months anticipating the Covid-19 scenario.