India’s counter mechanism for COVID-19: Steps to cater to Northeast, Oxygen arrangements for states & more

The government of India is actively addressing the need to support States and Union Territories, helping them with arrangements, facilities and other assistance. Union MoS (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Dr Jitendra Singh also informed that MDoNER is also pro-actively looking after the needs of the 8 North Eastern States in order to help them to fight the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, GoI has also catered to oxygen requirements of various states, latest details of which have been mentioned below.

Assistance from Japan & UNDP for Northeast region

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the state of Japan have partnered to provide 8 oxygen generation plants to hospitals in India’s Northeastern region to ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply. These plants are capable of supporting more than 1300 hospital beds across the region.

MoS Dr Jitendra Singh has also assured NE states that the ministry will get a fair share from foreign aid pouring in India and all attempts will be made in order to make sure the region isn’t left behind in the fight against COVID. He also directed sen. officials of the ministry to coordinate with Health, Railways and other relevant Ministries at the Centre to fulfil the demands of North Eastern States. The DoNER Ministry has stepped in pre-emptively and has placed Rs.25 Cr at the disposal of North Eastern States for preparatory steps to tackle the second wave.

Uttarakhand to become 9th State to receive Oxygen Express

The Indian Railways is diligently continuing the task of delivering Liquid Medical Oxygen(LMO) to various states across the country. So far, Indian Railways has delivered nearly 5735 MT of LMO in more than 375 tankers to various states and more than 90 oxygen expresses have completed their voyage of distributing oxygen to various states already.

With this, stations near Dehradun, Uttarakhand are also set to receive their first Oxygen Express which is expected to reach there tonight (11 May 2021) with 120MT of Oxygen from Tatanagar in Jharkhand. The city of Pune will also receive today its first Oxygen Express, carrying more than 50 MT of Oxygen from Angul. Till date, about 293MT of LMO has been sent to Maharashtra, nearly 1630 MT to Uttar Pradesh, 340 MT to Madhya Pradesh, 812 MT to Haryana, 123 MT to Telangana, 40 MT to Rajasthan, 120 MT to Karnataka and more than 2383 MT of LMO has been sent to Delhi.

Ministry of Panchayati Raj writes to States

The Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj has written to all the state governments with regard to taking preventive measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 infection in rural India. It suggested States to
– Sensitize and facilitate the Panchayats/Rural Local Bodies
– Undertake communication campaign to aware rural communities on COVID infection & preventive measures
– Involve local frontline volunteers for the campaign viz. elected panchayat representatives, teachers, ASHA workers etc.
– Provide volunteers with protective systems like oxy-meters, N-95 masks, infrared thermal scanning instruments, sanitizers etc.
– Leverage available IT infrastructure like Panchayat offices, Schools, Common Service Centers etc.
– Leverage various schemes towards the provision of rations, drinking water supply, sanitation, MGNREGS employment etc.
– Establish proper inter-linkages with the medical facilities at the nearby District and Sub-Districts to address emergency cases.
The letter also suggested that Panchayats may be designated to facilitate vaccination drives to ensure maximum coverage of the eligible population.