Tezpur: As rest of India continues to struggle for a sufficient supply of oxygen, closer home, Assam appears geared up to handle any situation. While the state government has already taken steps to ensure an uninterrupted supply of oxygen to the state, Tezpur University is offering to provide empty oxygen cylinders available in its laboratories to nearby hospitals.
The registrar of the central university in a statement, said, "In view of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shortage of oxygen cylinders, Tezpur University would like to support the health care services by providing them empty cylinders available in our laboratories. The cylinders are required by nearby hospitals for storing oxygen."
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Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday. Speaking on the occasion, the Minister expressed his concern over the violation of home isolation guidelines, saying that every COVID patient in home isolation must have an oximeter to detect the level of oxygen. Many patients don't have oximeters. They bring patients to hospitals when the level of oxygen is very low. Likewise, a section of asymptomatic patients takes the virus lightly till the condition is serious. When such patients are taken to the hospitals, the doctors get little time to save their lives.
The Union health ministry on Thursday refuted reports that oxygen concentrators are pending at the customs warehouse for getting clearance from the customs authorities. The news is totally incorrect, not based on facts and without any basis, it said. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has clarified that there is no such pendency with the Customs. The Customs is swiftly clearing all consignments and no such figures of pendency exist across any port of import. In all, 3000 oxygen concentrators have been received from various countries as global aid to support efforts of the Indian Government and the States and UTs in their collective fight against the global pandemic.
The Indian-American Sehgal Foundation, based in Des Moines, Iowa, has also announced that it will ship 200 oxygen concentrators to seven Indian states on Thursday. On May 5, with the commencement of another oxygen plant, the state oxygen production capacity has increased to 70.5 MT/per day.
Meanwhile, Assam has recorded 4,936 new COVID positive cases Thursday, 1,353 in Kamrup (M). During the day, 46 people died of the virus. Positivity rate in the State on the day is 8.04 per cent.