Mandya: There is a serious thinking to manufacture oxygen in the district as the present supply of liquid medical oxygen is not able to meet the current demand, said District In-charge Minister K.C. Narayanagowda.

Speaking to reporters here on Saturday, he said that the matter has been discussed with Sri Nirmalanandanatha Swamiji of Adichunchanagiri Mutt and also regarding the supply of machinery required to manufacture oxygen from Coimbatore. The two plants will come up in Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS) in Mandya City and Malavalli taluk. Legislators have been requested to contribute from their area development fund towards this cause.

The Minister said the current Corona crisis has brought untold misery to the district and the situation was yet to come under control. The infection has increased here as persons from this district who got infected in Bengaluru returned due to lack of beds in the State capital. Not taking suitable precautions has resulted in the outbreak of the pandemic.

He said the State Government was providing all kinds of infrastructure to the district. At present, oxygen was supplied in 400 jumbo cylinders. The district was supposed to get 7 KL oxygen from Ballari daily but only 10 KL is being supplied once in two days. The remaining 4 KL was being supplied to Mysuru District.

The Minister said that the district has 306 oxygenated beds and 12 additional beds have been added. The oxygenated bed was allotted once a patient is discharged. Besides, there are 50-60 ventilator beds in Mandya. There are 30 ventilator beds in Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences and other ventilator beds have been provided in BGS Hospital in Nagamangala among other hospitals. Hitherto, the district needed 850 metric tonnes of oxygen, but now the demand has touched 2,000 metric tonnes. But still it was not sufficient to provide oxygen to all the needy patients.