Ashok Gehlot urges Centre to rush 201 metric tonnes of medical oxygen to Rajasthan

Jaipur, Apr 30: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday urged the Centre to send 201 metric tonnes of medical oxygen on an emergency basis to the state to help it deal with the crisis arising out of the raging coronavirus pandemic.

He said the state government needed 466 metric tonnes of medical oxygen for those under treatment for COVID-19, but has only 265 metric tonnes in its stock.

"Today, there is a shortage of about 201 metric tonnes of oxygen in Rajasthan. The number of cases of infection in the state constitutes 5 per cent of the total cases in the country but oxygen allocation is just 1.6 per cent. The state will require a total of 550 metric tonnes of oxygen within a week. Therefore, there is another request for the Central Government that 201 metric tonnes of oxygen be allocated to the state today as an emergency," Gehlot tweeted.

He said the number of active coronavirus cases in the state currently is 1.70 lakh and 20,400 patients require oxygen support. It may be that the central government has taken control of oxygen and medicines for better management but if the states want to help each other, they should be allowed under the supervision of the Centre, Gehlot said.

Rajasthan has so far recorded 5,80,846 coronavirus cases and 4,084 deaths.