With 21,2753 active Covid-19 cases on Friday, Rajasthan has become the fourth state in India with the highest number of active cases.
On Friday, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that the state is in fourth position when it comes to the active coronavirus cases. Gehlot said in a series of tweets, “Rajasthan now has the 4th highest active cases at 2.11 lac, which is 5.72% of the total active cases of the country."
Emphasizing on the need for more oxygen, the chief minister said, "The present oxygen allocation is 435 MT including 125 MT of ASU. He said the situation is ‘extremely fragile’ as there are also constraints in lifting 100 metric tonnes (MT) of allocated oxygen from Burnpur and Kalinganagar in the East and this quota has not been adequately utilised by us despite best efforts.”
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The chief minister has urged the Centre to revise the allotment of oxygen from Jamnagar and Hazira immediately as active Covid-19 cases are going down in many states and requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan to intervene. “I sincerely request to revise the allotment of oxygen from Jamnagar and Hazira immediately as active cases are going down in many states and also the allotment of more imported oxygen at the earliest,” Gehlot tweeted.
Rajasthan on Friday recorded 14,289 fresh Covid-19 cases across the state with 155 deaths owing to the deadly virus. While 13,270 cases were recorded on Friday, the total number of patients recovered so far is 616,589. The state has 212,753 active cases as of Friday, which makes it the fourth highest in the country after Maharashtra, Delhi and Karnataka.
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The state is facing a dearth of oxygen as the cases continue to rise. "We have started importing oxygen concentrators from Russia and China and plan to purchase more than 28,000 such machines from different countries this month. The first batch of 100 oxygen concentrators arrived last week from Russia,” health minister Raghu Sharma said.
"The state government will purchase more than 28,000 oxygen concentrators this month. For the same, the procurement committee has contacted 62 companies from 13 countries in a very short span of time," Sharma added. The state is expecting to receive 6,900 oxygen concentrators from China by May 25.
Looking forward to the mass vaccination across the state, the Rajasthan government is exploring the possibility of purchasing Covid-19 vaccines from other countries through global tenders.
Sharma had earlier said, “As directed by the chief minister, the officers are exploring the possibilities of global tenders to purchase Covid vaccines. There are 2.09 crore beneficiaries above the age of 45 years in the state and 4.5 crore doses were required to vaccinate them but the state has only 1.5 crore doses. For people in the 18-44 age group, 7 crore doses are needed.”
A complete lockdown for two weeks has been imposed in Rajasthan from May 10 to 24 to control the spread of Covid-19. Moreover, weddings in the state have been banned till May 30. As per the latest guidelines of the Rajasthan administration, apart from ambulances, no other vehicle is allowed to move unless it is an emergency.
