Oxygen refilling leaves patient's kin waiting for days in Lucknow, equipment nowhere in sight

People in Lucknow say they have been waiting for days to refill an oxygen cylinder for their ailing relatives. The wait increased because oxygen plants in Lucknow reportedly do not have the equipment to refill the life-saving gas from tankers into cylinders.

As Covid-19 cases rise in Uttar Pradesh, a serious shortage of oxygen has been reported in Lucknow. While the Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh has procured oxygen cylinders, there is no technical equipment to fill oxygen into these from the plant because of which people have to wait for days to fill a cylinder. An oxygen capsule reached Awadh oxygen plant on May 5 to tackle the acute crunch a few days back. Due to lack of tools and technical expertise, however, the capsule wasn’t put to use. In Lucknow, 73 metric tonnes of oxygen was received, but since the required equipment was missing, it could not be unloaded, which has added to the worries of patients and their caretakers.