O2 consumption low in State despite Covid-19 surge

Despite a steep rise in the number of COVID-19 infections over the past few weeks, demand for liquid medical oxygen (LMO) has not increased as it did during the second wave. Oxygen consumption has remained stable at around 180 tonnes a day since October.

Oxygen consumption in the State that had stood at 177.4 tonnes on January 19 further reduced to 162.76 tonnes on January 20. Going by the low rate of hospitalisation, COVID-19 experts said oxygen consumption is unlikely to increase even if cases continue to rise.

Munish Moudgil, who is in charge of oxygen supply from refilling stations to healthcare facilities, said nearly 98% of the oxygen consumption was for patients with non-COVID ailments in hospitals now. “The State’s consumption is virtually the same as it was in October, 2021 and has, in fact, reduced by some extent on some days. There is no problem on the oxygen front as of now but we are keeping a watch,” he said.

“Given the fact that Maharashtra and Delhi did not face any oxygen crisis in the third wave and the wave is abating there, Bengaluru and Karnataka are not expected to be any different,” Mr. Moudgil pointed out.

Oxygen demand
Although the State has a total of 3,23,143 active cases, not more than 0.5% of these patients are requiring oxygen. As of Friday (January 21), of the total 5,529 active hospital admissions in the State, 1,102 patients occupied oxygen/high dependency unit beds, 329 ICU beds and 132 ICU with ventilator beds.

During the peak of the second wave in May last year when active cases crossed the three lakh mark, Karnataka had recorded nearly a five-fold rise in the requirement of LMO. While the maximum usage in 2020 during the first wave was not more than 420 tonnes per day, it shot up to 885 tonnes on May 22 during the second wave. That was when hospitals ran out of oxygen stocks and families were asked to shift out their patients from such hospitals. Oxygen consumption had remained at 120 tonnes per day on an average during the pre-COVID-19 period.

M.K. Sudarshan, chairman of the State’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) said the third wave is largely driven by Omicron. “As this mutated virus has a low virulence, the infection is only in the upper respiratory system and very little in the lungs. Hence, the number of people requiring oxygen and critical care is negligible,” he said.

“As the virus is highly transmissible, the rate of hospitalisation and oxygen consumption will now be the primary indicators for imposing restrictions and not the weekly Test Positivity Rate (WTPR) as it was earlier,” he said.

Home isolation
C.N. Manjunath, nodal officer for labs and testing in the State’s COVID-19 task force and member of the State’s Clinical Expert Committee, said more than 90% of patients were in home isolation. “We are hardly seeing any lung involvement in patients during this wave and hence there is no stress on the oxygen front. However, we have to be prepared,” he said.

In private hospitals
H.M. Prasanna, president of Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association , said there were hardly any admissions in private hospitals. “Not more than 2,200 of beds in private hospitals are occupied as of now and none is referred by the Government so far. In this context, I will write to the Government to allow us to use 25% of the beds set aside for government-referred COVID patients and pay us for the unused beds in the remaining 25%,” he said. The Hindu