Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday inspected infrastructure, amenities and availability of medical oxygen here to tackle Omicron strain of COVID-19, 34 cases of which has so far been detected in Tamil Nadu.
As many as 1.15 lakh beds have been readied in government and private sector hospitals as a precautionary measure and steps are being taken to create 50,000 more beds if warranted at COVID care centres, an official release here said. Stalin inspected an oxygen manufacturing plant at the state-run Rajiv Gandhi Hospital and amenities there to treat coronavirus patients. The CM’s inspection comes amid concerns over the new virus variant and a debate on whether or not a third wave would emerge. The CM visited a state facility here that houses an oxygen cylinder warehouse for emergency purposes, life saving emergency medical equipment supplies and ambulances. Also, he inspected the emergency control room and state war room to tackle the pandemic and a 24×7 vaccination centre. As on date, the government said infrastructure is in place in various government hospitals to ensure additional availability of 244 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen per day. The facilities to store liquid medical oxygen has been augmented further to ensure storage of 1,731 tonnes and separately, 167 tonnes could be produced by utilising 17,940 oxygen concentrators. Also, there are approximately 25,000 oxygen cylinders of different categories and capacities, in ready for use mode. Of the 34 Omicron cases detected so far, 12 were discharged and 22 admitted (in hospitals for treatment), a medical bulletin said.