Hyderabad: For the first time in the country, the Telangana government used cargo air transport to get the empty oxygen trucks to Odisha, to ensure there is no lack of oxygen availability to COVID-19 patients in the state.
The empty oxygen tankers were flown to Odisha in an army aircraft, to be filled with oxygen at the Tata steel plant in Kalinganagar and brought back for usage in hospitals.
Officials say it to be a unique approach as it saves three days of transportation time and brings back oxygen faster which saves many valuable lives.
State health minister Eatala Rajender, chief secretary Somesh Kumar and other officers oversaw the loading of empty oxygen trucks into an army cargo aircraft at old Begumpet airport.
IT minister, KTR tweeted congratulations to the officials’ effort with the government.
Earlier on Thursday, Eatala Rajendar said that the Centre is also discriminating in the allocation of oxygen, which is under its purview. The health minister pointed out that instead of allocating oxygen from nearby steel plants such as Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and Ballari Steel Plant, the Centre allocated Rourkela Steel Plant in Odisha to Telangana.
Telangana on Friday reported 6,206 COVID-19 cases and 29 deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of active cases to 3,79,494.