When the sudden halt to oxygen import from India may put the country at risk if the number of Covid-19 patients rises more, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said there is nothing to panic about the supply of oxygen in the country.

There is no shortage of oxygen at the hospitals and the government is working to increase the stock and capacity, the minister said in a press conference at Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons in Dhaka yesterday.

"We only used to import 40-50 tons daily as the demand increased during [recent surge of] coronavirus. But we are okay despite imports have remained closed for the last four to five days," Zahid Maleque said.

The supply of medical oxygen to public hospitals has been under a strain as the demand for life-sustaining gas doubled in the last few weeks.

Uncertainty looms large when neighbouring India has been in acute crisis for oxygen due to the tremendous surge of a double-mutant variant of coronavirus recently.

With the second wave being much stronger than the first one in the country, more and more patients require oxygen support. The recent sliding of transmission, however, was relieved for now.

The health minister said the production of liquid oxygen in the country is about 150 tons in the private sector while gas mask oxygen production is 250 to 300 tons.

"On the contrary, daily oxygen demand in the country is 125 to 150 tons. So far Bangladesh is in a fairly good position," he added.

The minister said, "When there was no central oxygen supply, most hospitals used oxygen in the gaseous form which we have no shortage of. We have asked many hospitals which can use gaseous oxygen.

"We have planned to supply liquid oxygen by taking from different industries if needed. We already have reserved 40 tons of liquid oxygen."

He informed that the government will import small oxygen plants soon.

"There is no reason to worry about. But if the number of patients Covid-19 increases, from 7,000 to 21,000, it is not possible to tackle it. So we have to work to ensure no rise in infection rate," Zahid Maleque said.

Many countries like the United States, Europe, and India have been facing a shortage of oxygen crisis due to the increase in the number of patients.

VACCINE

About three crore doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that the country purchased, the minister said, "Beximco, as well as the government, are trying to get those soon. But we do not know the timeline. There is a global crisis over the vaccine."

About other vaccine sources, he said, "We have green signalled the drug administration to approve vaccines which are available now. A committee led by the Principal Secretary is working on it."

He also said, "We have provided all documents to China's Sinopharm for the five lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine they will send as gift. Now, we're waiting for their response."

Referring to the global demand and politics over Covid-19 vaccines, the health minister said, "There is tension over vaccination. The raw material for making vaccines is in short supply in India. Ten rich countries have stocked 80 percent of the vaccines produced so far. But we are trying to get vaccines as early as possible."

'80 PERCENT INFECTION IN BIG CITIES'

The minister said if infection in big cities of the country can be controlled, the transmission will go down soon.

"We have seen that 70 to 80 percent of infections and deaths occur in cities including Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Sylhet, and Khulna City Corporation areas. People in these areas need to be more aware and follow health safety guidelines," Zahid Maleque said.

DAILY UPDATE

Meanwhile, 78 Covid-19 patients died during the past 24 hours till 8:00am yesterday, according to a press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

With this, the total number of deaths reached 11,228 and the death rate stands at 1.49 percent.

At least 3,031 new infections were recorded in the meantime taking the total number of people infected to 751,659, added the release.

The positivity rate was 12.51 percent against a total of 24,237 tests yesterday.

At least 5,234 Covid-19 patients have recovered during the period.