2 oxygen storage tanks inaugurated at Rajiv Gandhi Govt General Hospital

Augmenting supply of oxygen to cater to a possible increase in intake of COVID-19 patients, two oxygen storage tanks of 20 litres capacity were inaugurated at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here on Tuesday by Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian.

The two units, set up at a cost of Rs. Two crore, can produce over 500 litres of oxygen per minute and would be useful when there is a huge requirement, he said.

The Minister said the earlier practice was that liquid oxygen would be filled in the two units and later supplied to other wards in the hospital.

"However, during the second wave of Covid-19 when there was a huge requirement of the life-saving gas, it was realised an oxygen plant should be set up at the hospital," he told reporters.

"Today a private firm -- Tirumalai Chemicals Ltd -- came forward to set up one such unit at a cost of Rs 1 crore that will generate 500 litres of oxygen per minute, while another storage unit set up by Rotary Club at a cost of Rs 1 crore will generate 583 litres of oxygen per minute", he said.

Subramanian said the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital conducted the highest number of 15,87,454 RT-PCR tests compared to other government hospitals in the state.

On vaccination, he said till date 2.87 crore people have received the jabs and it was for the first time the number of vaccinations touched an all-time of high on a single-day when 4.88 lakh when people received their vaccinations on August 23.

"Today we expect it will cross the five lakh mark. Currently, there eight lakh vaccine doses in stock and we expect another five lakh to be sent from the Centre later in the day", he said.