C

ovid-19 cases have created a shortage of oxygen in the country, whereas the oxygen crisis in few states has become a common problem where people are gasping for oxygen and on the other hand black marketing is on hype. Meanwhile, Chief Minister of Punjab, Amarinder Singh on Monday has appealed to the Centre for more oxygen tankers, quoted that they don't have enough tankers to transport oxygen for seriously ill Covid-19 patients. 

The Chief Minister said in the Covid-19 review meeting, that the state urgently needs more tankers as it currently has only 15 at its disposal with two more likely to come by Tuesday. Punjab has an allocation of 195 metric tonne of oxygen from various plants in other states, but the actual supply received over the past 7 days have been around 110 -120 MT daily, which has been erratic, said the Minister.

According to a Government release,  the Chief Minister said that " these are not enough to handle the requirement of transporting the oxygen supply coming from other states." The current consumption of oxygen in the state is more than 225 MT daily while the average increase in demand every day is around 15-20 per cent. He also said that it was decided that Punjab shall increase our transportation rates as per the present market trend.

Meanwhile,  Punjab recorded 157 More covid-19 fatalities, taking the toll to 9,472 while 6,798 more infections pushed the tally to 3,92,042. On Sunday the state recorded 157 deaths. Ludhiana recorded maximum number of Covid-19 cases at 1,198, Jalandhar with 697, Bhatinda  with 632, Mohali with 534 and Patiala with 491.