MARGAO
As cyclone Tauktae wrecked havoc across the State, officials of the South Goa district administration and district hospital were on another job on Sunday “ Mission oxygen.
With close to 485 patients admitted in the South Goa district hospital on Sunday noon, the authorities did not take any chances over the cyclone disrupting oxygen supply to the district hospital and ESI hospital, the two major Covid hospitals in Margao.
While district Collector, Ruchika Katyal and deputy Collector, Jyoti Kumar were monitoring the oxygen supply situation from the district collectorate, South, deputy Collector, John Fernandes was on the field at Verna and Arlem to ensure that the damage to electric poles and disruptions in power supply does not disrupt the oxygen filling operations at the two plants.
For some time, the oxygen filling plant had power issues in the morning, but the authorities moved in quickly to supply power to the area via Fatorda.
Sources said the Verna industrial estate also faced power issues after strong winds hit electric poles and the roof of the plant. Deputy Collector, John, sources said, rushed to Verna with some plastic sheets to ensure that nothing comes in the way of the operation of the oxygen filling operation.
South Goa district hospital nodal officer, Dr Rajesh Patil said the district authorities had adopted precautions by arranging liquid oxygen tankers at the hospital since morning. He said as many as three liquid medical oxygen tankers were parked behind the South Goa district hospital on Sunday to ensure there’s no shortage of oxygen to the hospital.
“Yesterday, the hospital used around 5,000 litres of liquid oxygen from the tank installed within the district hospital. Besides, we had around 6-7 oxygen trolleys,” Dr Patil said, adding that the oxygen supply should not be an issue for the district hospital for the next 24 hours.
An official pointed out that the administration was closely monitoring the situation to ensure that the cyclone does not in any way affect the supply of oxygen to the hundreds of patients admitting in the South Goa district hospital and the ESI hospital, Margao.
