75 medical oxygen plants by July-end in Punjab

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 27

Taking a big leap in the augmentation of medical oxygen ahead of the much-anticipated third Covid wave, the Punjab Government will instal 75 more pressure swing adsorption (PSA) plants in the state by July-end. The PSA is process to generate enriched oxygen gas from ambient air.

Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan said the departments concerned had been asked to complete the installation of these plants by next month-end while ensuring pressure and purity of the life-saving gas. With this, the demand for medical oxygen will be met at all healthcare institutes in the state.

Chairing a high-level meeting to review the installation of PSA plants, here, the Chief Secretary instructed the officials that all pre-activities for the installation of plants must be completed by July 15 so that work of installation and commissioning be completed by July 25. She also asked to appoint nodal officers to oversee each sub-work, including site preparation, installation and gas pipeline network.

Punjab has its own two PSA plants, having capacity of 1,400 litres per minute, in Ludhiana and Jalandhar. While 42 plants have been allotted by the Centre for the medical colleges and the district hospitals, another 33 plants have been arranged by various agencies or private bodies for the state. Five PSA plants have already been installed and were under trial phase. The site preparation for another five was completed and it has been conveyed to the DRDO for moving these plants to their destinations in Barnala, Hoshiarpur, Ferozepur, Kapurthala and Tarn Taran.

Aggressive testing to contain Delta Plus

• Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan on Sunday put the state machinery in active mode to ensure surveillance and aggressive contact tracing and testing to contain the further spread of Delta Plus, a highly infectious variant of Covid
• She said a proposal regarding installation of whole genome sequencing machine at Government Medical College in Patiala was being taken up. She added ICMR had approved dry swab testing in which sample collection in VTM and mRNA extraction is not required