NAC tasked with bringing empty oxygen cylinders from China

The number of people being infected with the coronavirus has been on the rise for the past few days with a slight dip in the daily count on Saturday. Similarly, the number of patients who have lost their lives due to the infection has also increased quite considerably as compared to the first wave.

Along with this rise in number of infections hospitals in Nepal have witnessed a shortage of beds to treat patients with COVID-19. And the other problem that has dogged the medical fraternity is the lack of medical oxygen cylinders.

To cope with this shortage of oxygen cylinders, the government has decided to bring 20,000 empty oxygen cylinders from China. In this regard, a meeting of the COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre (CCMC) held on Friday, which was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ishwor Pokhrel, decided to bring 400 such cylinders in the first phase from the northern neighbour.

Meanwhile, Dr Sameer Kumar Adhikari, deputy spokesperson of the Ministry of Health and Population, while talking to NepalNews, mentioned that Nepal at the moment needs anywhere between 20,000 to 25,000 cylinders immediately. “And the problem does not get solved by just bringing the cylinders,” he shared.

“We also need to refill those cylinders as quickly as possible and distribute them to the hospitals that are treating patients infected with COVID-19 on a war-footing,” Dr Adhikari added.

On a request from the Nepali government, the Chinese government has decided to assist Nepal with 20,000 empty oxygen cylinders as Nepal has been struggling with the massive spread of the coronavirus and hospitals across the country have been overwhelmed with patients.

According to CCMC, of the 20,000 cylinders, it has been decided to bring 2,000 cylinders via air and the remaining through land route. The CCMC meeting has also assigned the responsibility of bringing the empty oxygen cylinders from China to Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC).

“We will be utilising our wide-body aircraft to bring the cylinders to Nepal,” said Karishma Shrestha, Director – Office of the Managing Director, Nepal Airlines Corporation. “Our flight will depart for Beijing from Tribhuvan International Airport at 11:30 pm on Monday (May 10) and will arrive the following day at 2:35 pm,” she informed.

When asked about the schedule to bring the remaining cylinders, Shrestha said that NAC has to first receive a communication from the concerned ministry and then preparations are made accordingly. “Having said that what I would like to mention is that we are always ready and as soon as we receive the notification we will operate our flights accordingly to bring the empty oxygen cylinders from China,” she added.