Ministry
of Health and Family Welfare
Union Health Ministry urges
States/UTs to ensure that no restriction is imposed on movement of Medical
Oxygen between States
States/UTs made responsible to ensure that every hospitalized COVID patient
receives oxygen
Posted
On: 11 SEP 2020 12:24PM by PIB
It has come to the knowledge of the Union Health Ministry
that few States are trying to curb the free inter-State movement of oxygen
supplies by exercising provisions under various Acts and also mandating the
manufacturers/suppliers located in the State to restrict their oxygen supplies
to only the hospitals of the State.
In view of this, the Health Ministry has reiterated the
critical importance of Oxygen in hospitals for management of critical COVID
patients. In a letter written to the States/UTs, Union Health Secretary has
emphasised that availability of adequate and uninterrupted supply of medical
oxygen is an important pre-requisite for managing moderate and severe cases of
COVID-19.
The Health Secretary has urged the States/UTs to ensure
that no restriction is imposed on the movement of medical oxygen between them.
It has been strongly reinforced that it is every State's responsibility to
ensure that every hospitalized COVID patient receives oxygen.
It has been again brought to their notice that medical
oxygen constitutes an Essential Public Health Commodity and any impediment in
the supplies of medical oxygen in the country may critically impact the
management of patients suffering from COVID-19 disease in other parts of the
country. Moreover, some of the major oxygen manufacturers/supplies already have
existing supply agreements with hospitals in various states with a legal
obligation to fulfil such agreements.
The Centre-led COVID management strategy is based on
Standard of Care Treatment Guidelines. These Guidelines have ensured a uniform
and standardised quality of medical care in all the COVID facilities, including
hospitals. For moderate and severe cases, adequate oxygen support, appropriate
and timely administration of anti-coagulants and widely available and
inexpensive corticosteroids, in accordance with the protocol, can be considered
to be the mainstay of COVID-19 therapy.
Adequate supply of oxygen throughout the country has
enabled effective clinical care of the hospitalised moderate and severe cases,
in conjunction with other measures. The adopted host of strategies have
actively resulted in rising Recovery Rate and steadily declining Case Fatality
Rate (1.67% currently). As on date, less than 3.7% of active patients are
on oxygen support.
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MV/SJ
HFW/COVID States data/11September2020/2
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