Karnataka asks Centre for 1,500 tonnes of oxygen, one lakh vials of Remdesivir
Bengaluru: Karnataka has asked the Centre to supply 1,500 metric tonnes of oxygen and one lakh vials of Remdesivir in view of the growing COVID cases in the state.
"We have estimated that in the next one month, we may require 1,500 metric tonnes of oxygen. In this regard, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has written to Union Minister for Railways, Commerce and Industries Piyush Goyal," state Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar told reporters here on Thursday.
He said he too has written to the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan for supply of oxygen.
Sudhakar said the state government had a meeting with the major oxygen generators in the state.
Of them JSW Steel is the largest one.
"We had a meeting with Sajjan Jindal and he has assured us to supply as much oxygen required in the state," Sudhakar said.
The Minister said after the meeting JSW steel supplied 40 metric tonnes in the last two days required for Bengaluru. Besides this, the State has demanded additional supply of Remdesivir injections, which is crucial for COVID treatment.
According to him, the state has ordered 70,000 vials of Remdesivir injection, of which 20,000 had arrived while the remaining would be supplied in the coming days.
"We have already ordered 70,000 vials of Remdesivir.
This besides we have put forth the demand for one lakh Remdesivir vials for which we have written to the Centre," he added.
To a question as to why the state did not stock enough oxygen beforehand, the Minister said when the cases had reduced, there was no such demand and hence there was no point in storing it.
Now that the cases have gone up the meetings took place to meet the requirement.
The minister's statement came as the demand for oxygen and Remdesivir injection grew in view of the alarming rise of COVID cases, leading to their blackmarketing as well.
The government cracked the whip and arrested a few who were blackmarketing Remdesivir injection.
However, the shortage persisted.
There, however, is no crackdown on the blackmarketing of oxygen cylinders in the state.
The grim situation could be assessed from the fact that on Wednesday alone, the state reported 23,558 fresh COVID cases and 116 deaths while the active cases in the state has gone up to 1.76 lakh.
The active cases comprised 904 patients in the ICU.
Bengaluru Urban district alone contributed more than 70 per cent of the cases and fatalities, prompting Sudhakar to call Bengaluru the epicentre of COVID in Karnataka.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
