Karnataka CM urges PM to supply 1,471 tonnes of oxygen and two lakh doses of Remdesivir
Bengaluru, Apr 23: Amid surging COVID-19 cases, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Friday urged the Centre to supply 1,471 tonnes of oxygen and two lakh doses of Remdesivir.
The CM made this request to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the PM's video conference with chief ministers of 10 states, where coronavirus cases have exploded in an alarming proportion.
Karnataka had recorded 25,795 fresh cases and 123 deaths on a single day on Thursday.
"The state needs 1,142 tonnes of oxygen from April 25 and 1,471 tonnes of oxygen after April 30.The chief minister appealed to the Prime Minister to rectify the shortage of oxygen and immediately allocate 1,471 tonnes of oxygen," the Chief Minister's office said in a statement.
Yediyurappa said 500 tonnes of oxygen was used on Thursday.
"The Centre had supplied only 300 tonnes of oxygen.
If this situation persists, many healthcare centres may have to be shutdown," the Chief Minister pointed out.
Yediyurappa said the infection count was going up in an alarming proportion in Bengaluru, Tumakuru, Ballari, Mysuru, Hassan and Kalaburagi due to which the demand for Remdesivir injection has also spiralled.
"While the state is careful that there is no dearth of Remdesivir injection, the Chief Minister appealed to the Prime Minister to supply two lakh doses of Remdesivir in the next 10 days," the statement said.
Explaining the measures taken by the state government to tackle the Covid situation, Yediyurappa said the government has ordered private hospitals to reserve 50 per cent of beds for coronavirus patients.
The government has permitted the private hospitals to use nearby hotels as step-down hospitals while plans are underway to set up field hospitals with ICU facilities in the coming days, Yediyurappa told the Prime Minister.
He also apprised Modi about the stringent measures taken to curb the rising COVID cases in the state.
According to the Chief Minister's office, the Prime Minister emphasised on reforms of the healthcare system.
Underlining the need to strictly implement the precautionary measures and avoiding unnecessary hospitalisation, the Prime Minister asked the states to prioritise adequate and moderate use of oxygen.
"Modi advised that oxygen should be audited in all states so as to prevent its misuse.He also suggested that state governments should facilitate the smooth flow of oxygen tankers," the statement said.
For the judicious usage of oxygen and remdesivir injection, the Prime Minister asked the states to control the anxiety among people, the statement read, adding Modi asked states to rope in retired personnel to contain coronavirus cases.
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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.
