Airlift oxygen, give adequate vaccines, allow Remdesivir imports: Thackeray tells PM
Maharashtra Chief Minister UddhavThackeray on Friday demanded additional medical oxygen for thestate, adequate supply of vaccines, and permission to importRemdesivir to tackle the surge in COVID-19 cases.
Speaking at a virtual meeting held by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, he also demanded that oxygen be airlifted ifpossible, an official release said here.
Maharashtra requires 1,550 metric tonnes of medicaloxygen to treat coronavirus patients every day and about 300to 350 metric tons is being procured from outside, he said.
Instead of distant states, if the supply could bearranged from neighbouring states, it would be availableearly, he said, according to the release.
Empty oxygen tankers should be flown back to refillingplants to save on transportation time if it was not possibleto airlift oxygen, Thackeray said. State health ministerRajesh Tope told reporters later that the demand of flyingback empty tankers was accepted.
More than 60,000 patients in the state are on oxygenwhile there are 76,300 oxygen beds and over 25,000 additionaloxygen beds were being arranged, the CM informed.
Considering its requirement, Maharashtra should get250 to 300 metric tons of additional oxygen, Thackeray said.
Speaking on Remdesivir shortages, he said, “It is notknown how effective Remdesivir is but it surely reduces theperiod of hospitalisation.
“The state should get Remdesivir supply based on thenumber of patients it has,” he said.
Maharashtra needs 70,000vials of Remdesivir every daybut is getting only27,000, and it should be allowed to importthe medicine, he said.
Maharashtra has about 5 lakh doses of vaccine in stockas of now, he informed.
“Maharashtra has 5.71 crore people in the 18 to44 agegroup. We will require 12 crore doses. Our vaccinemanufacturers will not be able to produce the required dosesin a short time. The corporate sector should also be givenpermission to purchase vaccines under their Corporate SocialResponsibility obligation,” he said.
The Centre should provide 13,000 jumbo oxygencylinders and 1,100 ventilators to Maharashtra, he said.
Modi had said lockdown should be a last resort, butunfortunately Maharashtra had to impose strict restrictions,the chief minister said.
“We are ensuring that the economic cycle is nothampered while the state is in the strict lockdown,” he added.
He expressed confidence that Maharashtra will succeedin containing the pandemic.
Services of retired doctors, nurses and medicalstudents are being enlisted to tackle the pandemic andfacilities such as tele-medicine and “tele-ICU” are being usedto ensure that patients get treatment immediately, he said.
He also stressed the need for study of the `doublemutation in the virus which has been found in the country toformulate the right approach to deal with the current surge ininfections.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)