Thiruvananthapuram, May 1: Amid the acute oxygen shortage in the state, Kerala Chief Secretary VP Joy wrote a letter to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and urged the organisation, to supply medical oxygen to Kerala from Tamil Nadu.
In the letter VP Joy said, this assistance will greatly assist in India's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter reads, "As you may be aware, there has been a significant surge in COVId-19 in Kerala recently and, the requirement for liquid medical oxygen has been increasing. Even though the state government is continuously working to enhance the capacity for generating liquid medical oxygen within the state, the state needs to augment the existing capacity urgently."
In the last part, he requested ISRO to provide 10 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen per week to Kerala from the first week of May 2021. "I requested that ISRO may provide 10 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen per week to Kerala from the ISro Propulsion Complex at Maherdragiri commencing from the week of May 2021," the letter further reads.
It should be noted that the state has 23 oxygen-filling plants, mostly private. However sudden covid surge has created a shortage of medical oxygen in the state. Kerala has also set up oxygen war rooms across the state. This will function at state and district levels with representatives of Police, Health, Transportation, Disaster Management, and PESO. Moreover, the Kerala govt has also formed a committee under the Home Secretary to monitor the availability of medical oxygen.
Kerala was the first Indian state who was reported the first Covid patient on January 30 last year. In the last 24 hours, the southern state witnessed a record spike of 38,607 new Covid cases. The positivity rate stands at 24 percent. It seems like the "Kerala Pattern" which was praised by many has to get failed to contain the virus in the state.
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