AHMEDABAD: The second Covid wave, intensified by the dominant double mutant Covid Delta virus, had driven the Gujarat government to the edge.
Data has revealed that in 27 days of April, beginning April 1, Gujarat’s medical oxygen consumption for Covid patients had shot up from 115 MT/day to 1,179 MT/day.
The state had provisioned for a maximum of 1,270 MT/day.
It was a period gusting with anxiety for the oxygen task force that consisted of officials from the state health department, Food and Drugs Control Administration, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, and the urban local bodies.
“The double mutant virus was detected on February 2 in Gujarat,” said a senior health department official.
“If cases peaked across Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, and Rajkot simultaneously or with a difference of a day or two, there was no way we could have prevented crises at hospitals.” The official added: “That was our greatest worry.” When severe cases of Covid had peaked in Ahmedabad between May 3 and May 6, oxygen demand rose to 253 MT/day.
In Surat, the number of patients requiring oxygen had peaked between April 19 and April 23.
In Vadodara, severe cases had peaked between April 29 and May 4.
In Rajkot, the number of patients requiring oxygen beds had been rising between April 25 and May 4.
The official said that during the three peaks in 2020, oxygen demand in the state had consistently hovered between 214 MT/day and 244 MT/day.
But after the new Covid double mutant virus struck Gujarat on February 2, the demand surged from a low of 80 MT/day on February 2 to 1,179 MT/day on April 27.
This clearly indicated that the double mutant had made a significant number of patients gasp for breath.
Gujarat’s total readiness for oxygen was 1,100 MT/day on April 25.
“Many oxygen refillers were working overtime in the state which helped in the logistics greatly as different cities peaked at different times,” the official said.