Supply of oxygen for industrial purposes must be restricted: Union Health Ministry

The Centre on April 18, 2021, announced that the supply of oxygen for industrial purposes has been prohibited from April 22, 2021, onwards to divert the supply towards meeting the rising demand for treatment of COVID-19 patients.

To immediately cater to the rapidly increasing demand of medical #Oxygen due to surge in #COVID19 cases, supply of oxygen for industrial purposes has been prohibited except for 9 selected industries.…@PMOIndia @MoHFW_INDIA @DIPPGOI #Unite2FightCorona pic.twitter.com/1wEQymVB2E

— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) April 18, 2021

Union Health Ministry after due deliberations with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said that the supply of oxygen for industrial purposes must be restricted. The surplus oxygen as a result of this move will be used to meet the rising demand for medical oxygen and treat COVID-19 patients.

However, nine industries have been exempted from this prohibition. They are:

• Pharmaceutical

• Oxygen cylinder manufacturers

• Wastewater treatment plants

• Ampoules and Vials

• Petroleum refineries

• Nuclear energy facilities

• Food and water purification

• Process industries

The industrial units not listed above have been advised to consider alternate ways such as setting up their own Air Separator Units (ASU) or import Oxygen for their requirements.

Due to the shortage of oxygen with the rising number of COVID-19 cases, the Indian Railways on April 18, 2021, also announced that ‘Oxygen Express’ trains will run across key corridors of the nation to transport Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO).

Shortage of Oxygen in the country

India has been the second-worst hit nation from coronavirus with a total of 15 million confirmed cases so far.

#CoronaVirusUpdates:

📍#COVID19 India Tracker
(As on 19 April, 2021, 08:00 AM)

➡️Confirmed cases: 1,50,61,919
➡️Recovered: 1,29,53,821 (86.00%)👍
➡️Active cases: 19,29,329 (12.81%)
➡️Deaths: 1,78,769 (1.19%)#IndiaFightsCorona#Unite2FightCorona#StaySafe @MoHFW_INDIA pic.twitter.com/oCu8BN38hi

— #IndiaFightsCorona (@COVIDNewsByMIB) April 19, 2021

The country is grappling with a deadly surge in the number of daily COVID-19 cases. The hospital and medical institutions are not able to meet the requirements for medical oxygen to treat COVID-19 patients.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) informed that the demand is already at 60 percent of the total daily Oxygen production and expected to rise higher.