Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sanctioned the procurement of one lakh portable oxygen concentrators from the PM Cares Fund on Wednesday. In addition to the earlier sanctioned 713 Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants under PM Cares Fund, 500 new PSA oxygen plants have been sanctioned. “1 lakh portable oxygen concentrators will be procured, 500 more PSA oxygen plants sanctioned from PM-CARES. This will improve access to oxygen, especially in district HQs and Tier-2 cities,” PM Modi tweeted.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the measures needed to improve Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) Supply for Covid management.
Prime Minister said that these oxygen concentrators should be procured at the earliest and provided in states with high case burden, informed an official release by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The PSA plants will augment the supply of LMO at hospitals in district headquarters and Tier 2 cities.
These 500 PSA plants will be established with the transfer of the indigenous technology developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to the domestic manufacturers.
Establishing PSA plants and procurement of portable oxygen concentrators will greatly augment the supply of oxygen near the demand clusters, thereby addressing the current logistical challenges in transporting oxygen from plants to hospitals.
Hospitals in several states are grappling with the shortage of oxygen due to a surge in Covid-19 cases. The Government of India has been importing oxygen concentrators and oxygen generation equipment from various countries to meet the ever-growing medical oxygen demand.