The Telangana government has airlifted eight oxygen tanks using Indian Air Force cargo carriers to bring back oxygen from the plants in Odisha for use in Covid-19 treatment in the state.
The procedure of loading empty oxygen tanks into two C-17 air crafts at the Begumpet airport was supervised by Telangana Health Minister Etela Rajender and the state chief secretary Somesh Kumar on Friday.
“As per the instructions of CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, eight tankers were airlifted to the liquid oxygen plants in Odisha. This would save the three day journey by road and thus helps in resolving the oxygen shortage problem in the state to a great extent. This is the first instance when oxygen tankers have been airlifted,” a government press release said.
However, Etela added that “there is no oxygen shortage in the government hospitals while one or two private hospitals might be facing some scarcity.”
A day earlier, Etela charged the Narendra Modi government of being discriminatory in allocation of Covid-19 vaccines, drugs like Remdesivir and even the medical oxygen.
KTR tests positive
After chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, his son KT Rama Rao has tested positive for Covid-19.
On Friday, Telangana's IT, industries, municipal administration minister revealed on Twitter that he is in home isolation, with mild symptoms.
CM Rao, who tested positive earlier this week, is resting at his farm house in Erravelli, about 65 km north of Hyderabad. On Wednesday, the CM underwent a few examinations like CT scan, blood tests at a corporate hospital in the city.
The state health department has recorded 6,206 new cases from the 1,05,602 samples tested on Thursday. Over a thousand of these positive cases are from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation area. There are 52,726 active cases in the state now.
Reschedule municipal polls: Congress
With cases climbing up every day in Telangana, the Congress has approached Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan seeking the suspension of Warangal, Khammam corporation and five other municipality polls in the present Covid-19 situation.
“There is a severe shortage of oxygen and vaccines in the state. The daily Covid-19 death numbers in Telangana state are reaching new record highs each day. The Supreme Court of India says the present situation is a “National Emergency”. But the Telangana government asks for continuance of the municipal elections and the State Election Commission dutifully follows the directions. The SEC is endangering the lives of lakhs of voters in the two municipal corporations and five municipalities,” Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief Uttam Kumar Reddy wrote to the Governor on Friday.
The local polls are scheduled to be held on 30 April.
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