Oxygen plants, subsidy to private hospitals: Here's how Andhra Pradesh is prepping for Omicron wave

New Delhi: In the wake of the rapidly rising daily COVID-19 cases, the Andhra Pradesh government on Monday (January 10) took cognizance of the developing pandemic situation and equipped public hospitals for any future exigencies.

144 Oxygen plants

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday inaugurated 144 Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) Oxygen Plants, in virtual mode. The oxygen plants have been set up at various government hospitals across the state.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said that the government has been taking all measures to contain coronavirus ahead of the third wave and as part of it, 144 oxygen plants have been set up in government hospitals at a cost of Rs 426 crore.

Subsidy to private hospitals

Apart from equipping government hospitals with oxygen, the government will also provide a 30% subsidy to private hospitals with over 100-bed capacity to set up an oxygen plant.

The CM said that steps were taken to achieve self-sufficiency of oxygen, as the entire country faced a severe shortage of oxygen during the second wave.

Additional medical facilities

The Andhra Pradesh government had also purchased 25 oxygen cryogenic ISO containers for transporting Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO), along with 74 LMO tanks.

Additionally, Oxygen pipelines were set up to 24,419 beds in various government hospitals at a cost of Rs 90 crore and Pediatric Care Units with 20 beds have been set up at community health centres.

Besides that 20 state-of-the-art VRDL labs have been set up in the state, increasing the testing capacity from zero to one lakh tests per day.

Reddy also inspected 20 types of advanced medical equipment brought by the Medical and Health Department and showcased them at the camp office.

Meanwhile, catalysed by the Omicron variant of coronavirus, India on Monday recorded 1,79,723 fresh COVID-19 cases, pushing the active caseload to 7,23,619. The daily positivity rate stood at 13.29 per cent, while 146 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours.

(With IANS inputs)