Heena Sharma Blog

  Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Monday said that the recovery time from COVID-19 infection and oxygen dependency will be reduced by anti-COVID drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). While speaking at the release ceremony of the first batch of the Covid 2-DG drug , Vardhan said, "With the support of DRDO and in the leadership of Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, this (anti-COVID drug 2DG) may be our first indigenous research-based outcome to fight against COVID-19. It will reduce recovery time and oxygen dependency." "I hope that this drug will serve the world and not just India in the fight against COVID-19 in the coming days," he further said. "We have been combating COVID-19 for the past year and our scientists have developed the vaccine and made it available to the public. I thank and congratulate DRDO and its scientists. We have seen that under Prime Minister Modi's l...

  The Centre has told the Gujarat High Court that it is augmenting oxygen supply for COVID-19 patients from all available sources within India and also importing it from other countries through "diplomatic channels as well as personal intervention of the political executive". In a report on the supply of medical oxygen submitted before the HC on Monday, the Centre said a total allocation of 8,410 metric tonnes of oxygen has been made for 22 high burden states and Union Territories based on their demand, the Centre told the HC on Tuesday. The states should also make an effort to manage their oxygen demand through rational usage of this "scarce and critical resource" by continuous and close monitoring of hospitals and stringent audit of the oxygen usage, it said A division bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice B D Karia had sought the Centre's response while hearing a PIL taken up suo motu (on its own) on the COVID-19 situation. Read More

  Amid the shortage of medical oxygen across the country due to a massive surge in COVID-19 cases , Delhi has got its first COVID care centre with its own oxygen plant at the Commonwealth Games village Sports complex. The oxygen plant can supply oxygen to 18-20 patients simultaneously. Dr Anurag Mishra, Clinical Manager at the COVID care centre, told ANI that to overcome the shortage of medical oxygen, oxygen plant has been set up at the COVID care centre itself. "The shortage of medical oxygen in Delhi is due to the supply chain of the oxygen cylinders. Setting up our own oxygen plant is a great move," Mishra said. "The plant has been donated by the HCL foundation. We are thankful to them as we no longer depend on a supply chain," he said. He further urged the hospitals to set up their own oxygen plant as it can save many lives. Read More

  As many as 24 patients including 23 suffering from COVID-19 died in Karnataka's Chamarajanagar due to alleged oxygen shortage in the district hospital in the last 24 hours, officials said. A pall of gloom descended on the Chamarajanagar district hospital as the grieving kin of the deceased gathered after hearing the news. Family members of the dead also staged a demonstration at the hospital and alleged there was a shorten of oxygen and raised slogans. Chamarajanagar district in-charge Minister S Suresh Kumar, who is also the Primary and Secondary Education Minister, said he has ordered a death audit report from the district administration into the incident. He, however, maintained that all the deaths did not occur due to oxygen shortage. "It's not appropriate to say that all the 24 deaths happened due to oxygen shortage. These deaths had happened from Sunday morning to this morning. The oxygen shortage happened in the wee hours of Monday -- from 12.30 AM to 2...

  India, currently struggling with the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic , on Friday received coronavirus-related assistance from Romania and the United Kingdom, informed Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi. Taking to Twitter, Bagchi said India has received 80 oxygen concentrators and 75 oxygen cylinders from Romania, while it received 280 oxygen concentrators from the UK. "Taking forward our warm and friendly relations. Thank our EU partner Romania for their support with consignment containing 80 oxygen concentrators and 75 oxygen cylinders," he tweeted. In a subsequent tweet, he said: "Grateful to UK for the third shipment containing 280 oxygen concentrators that arrived early this morning. Reflects our shared commitment to fighting the pandemic." Earlier, a shipment from Ireland containing 700 units of oxygen concentrators and 365 ventilators arrived here in India. Read More

  Walmart , the world’s largest retailer, said on Friday it will use its global resources to expand support for Covid-19 relief efforts in India. Walmart, the Walmart Foundation, Flipkart and PhonePe, along with Walmart’s Global Technology and Sourcing hubs, are collaborating to counter oxygen shortages, support the national vaccination drive and donate to organizations making a difference in communities nationwide. “Walmart is a global family. We feel the impact of this devastating surge on our associates, families and friends across India, and it’s important that we come together to support however we can,” said Doug McMillon, President and CEO of Walmart Inc. Walmart will donate up to 20 oxygen-generating plants and 20 cryogenic containers for oxygen storage and transportation, as well as more than 3,000 oxygen concentrators and 500 oxygen cylinders for delivering oxygen therapy to patients at home or in the hospital. These are being sourced globally and will be donated t...

  A quick intervention by staff saved the lives of 14 patients on oxygen support in the Parbhani district hospital in Maharashtra as the pipeline supplying the life-saving gas developed a leak after a branch of a tree fell on it, officials said on Wednesday. After noticing the leak on late Tuesday night, the staff of the hospital shifted the patients on jumbo oxygen cylinders for breathing, Deputy Collector Sanjay Kundetkar told PTI. "Around 11.30 pm, a branch of a tree fell on the pipeline which carries medical oxygen from the storage tank to the casualty and burns ward of the hospital, which caused leakage. The fault was detected and simultaneously 14 patients admitted in the casualty section were shifted on jumbo oxygen cylinders for breathing. The supply of oxygen was switched off for repairing the leak," he said. According to Kundetkar, the oxygen supply was interrupted for merely 2-3 minutes. He said technicians repaired the pipeline within two hours. "N...

  The Centre has imported 20 cryogenic tankers of 10 MT and 20 MT capacity and allocated them to states to address the shortage of oxygen tankers in the country as it deals with spiraling cases of COVID-19 . As mapping of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) from manufacturing plants to different states is a dynamic process and transportation of medical oxygen through cryogenic tankers is becoming a bottleneck in making available LMO from the eastern part of the country to other parts, 20 cryogenic ISO containers of capacity 20 MT and 10 MT have been imported to augment the transportation of oxygen, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in consultation with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade under the overall guidance of the Empowered Group-II have mapped the allocation of these containers to suppliers in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi, the ministry said in the statement. Read More

  Over three hundred oxygen concentrators have been dispatched on Sunday morning from New York to India, according to a Government of India official based in the United States. Air India's A102 is transporting five tonnes (5000kg) of oxygen concentrators as cargo from the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and is scheduled to land in Delhi by Monday noon. The wide-bodied passenger aircraft will operate non-stop for over 15 hours. India is witnessing a deadly COVID-19 wave , with the country reporting over 3 lakh daily cases from the last few days. The country is facing a critical shortage of oxygen amid a devastating surge in COVID-19 infections . "Apart from this consignment that's has been shipped by Philips Atlanta, additional flights carrying oxygen concentrators will take off from San Francisco and Newark to transport hundreds of concentrators. The next flight from the US to India is scheduled to depart from Newark airport and will land in Delhi on...

  A train carrying three tankers loaded with liquid medical oxygen arrived at Kalamboli near Mumbai from Jamnagar in Gujarat on Monday, railway officials said. The train, carrying about 44 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen, nearly 15 tonnes in each tanker, reached Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai at around 11.30 am, covering a distance of about 860 km in over 17 hours, they said. This is the second ' Oxygen Express ' to arrive in Maharashtra, which is facing shortage of the liquid medical oxygen due to a sharp surge in COVID-19 cases . The first 'Oxygen Express' carrying seven tankers of the liquid medical oxygen reached the state from Visakhapatnam on April 23. Four of those tankers were offloaded at Nashik and three at Nagpur, considering the local need. Informing about the 'Oxygen Express' which arrived on Monday, Western Railway officials said the Ro-Ro (Roll on-Roll off) goods train carrying three tankers of the liquid medical oxygen on BWT wagons left from ...

  The Tata Group will be importing 24 cryogenic containers to transport liquid oxygen and help ease oxygen shortage amid a staggering surge in COVID-19 cases across the country. "The Tata group is importing 24 cryogenic containers to transport liquid oxygen and help ease the oxygen shortage in the country. #ThisIsTata," the group said in a social media post. Lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to the people in his address to the nation in the wake of the second wave of the pandemic, the group said it is "committed to doing as much as possible to strengthen the fight against #COVID19". The import of the cryogenic containers via chartered flights to mitigate the oxygen crisis is one such effort to boost health Infrastructure, it added. In his address to the nation on Tuesday, the Prime Minister called upon all stakeholders, including the pharmaceutical industry, to deal collectively with the immediate challenge of the shortage of oxygen cylind...

  The first ' Oxygen Express ' departed from Central Railway's Kalamboli yard on Monday evening to ferry liquid oxygen for Maharashtra from Vishakhapatnam steel plant in Andhra Pradesh amid the worsening COVID-19 situation . In a statement, the ministry of railways informed that the Mumbai Division built a ramp overnight within 24 hours at Kalamboli goods yard to facilitate loading/unloading of tankers in/from flat wagons. "The Ro-Ro (roll-on, roll-off) service with seven empty tankers departed from Kalamboli goods yard for Visakhapatnam steel plant siding at 8.05 pm on Monday." This train will move via Vasai Road, Jalgaon, Nagpur, Raipur Junction to Visakhapatnam steel plant siding in ECoR zone where it will be loaded with Liquid Medical Oxygen. On Sunday, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, in an interview to ANI, had informed that the central government was creating a green corridor for fast movement of 'Oxygen Express' trains to facilities for the ...

  The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Monday supplied 150 jumbo cylinders of medical oxygen to the Uttar Pradesh government, as per directions by Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. An additional 1,000 cylinders would be provided by the DRDO later. The oxygen would be supplied to hospitals in Lucknow for COVID-19 patients . The COVID-19 situation in Uttar Pradesh has deteriorated further with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself testing positive on Wednesday. The state government on Friday announced a lockdown across the state on all Sundays till May 15. All districts of Uttar Pradesh are under lockdown from 8 pm on Saturday, which will continue till 7 am, Monday. According to the Union Health Ministry, Uttar Pradesh currently has a total of 1,91,457 active COVID-19 cases, with 6,50,333 total infections and 9,830 deaths. Read More

  As Indians look for a seamless experience with their smartphones, a new study claimed on Wednesday that the degree of consumer satisfaction is the highest with OxygenOS from OnePlus (74 per cent) followed by Apple iOS (72 per cent). According to the study titled 'The State of SmartphoneOS Experience' by CyberMedia Research (CMR), 55 per cent of the Indian smartphone users surveyed believe that Smartphone OS is key for the overall experience and delight. Three in every five users are willing to shift to a different smartphone brand, driven by the operating system (OS) considerations. The key issues they face are unwanted ads in the OS, pre-installed apps, apps running in background and other issues, such as lack of storage, overheating and battery drainage issues, among others. Read More