Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 24: As India again reported a record number of over 3.46 lakh Covid-19 cases and also the highest ever 2,624 death in the 24 hours ending 9 am Saturday, the centre granted customs duty exemptions for a period of three months on vaccines and medicines related to the Coronavirus cases to fight the pandemic on a war footing.
At a high-level meeting on Saturday chaired by the prime minister Narendra Modi, the government decided to exempt basics customs duty on import of COVID-19 vaccines, and the basic customs duty and health cess on import of medical grade Oxygen and other equipment related to providing oxygen to patients, for a period of three months.
The meeting to review steps taken to boost oxygen availability in the country, was attended among others by the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, health minister Harsha Vardhan and AIIMS director Randeep Guleria.
Saturday’s case count was not only the highest single-day spike in the country, it was also the most number of Covid cases reported in a day in any country in the world. The death toll was also a new record of casualties in a day.
On Friday, India had recorded over 3.32 lakh new Covid cases.
Over 25.52 lakh cases are currently active in the country while over 1.38 crore people have recovered after testing positive. The total death toll is now over 1.89 lakh.
A finance ministry spokesman announcing the customs duy exemptions said, “The PM emphasized that there was an immediate need to augment the supply of medical grade oxygen as well as equipment required for patient care both at home and in hospitals. PM stressed that all ministries and departments need to work in synergy to increase availability of oxygen and medical supplies.” While basic customs duty on Remdesivir and its active pharmaceutical ingredients has been waived, it was suggested that import of equipment related to providing oxygen to patients needs to be expedited.
“In order to augment their production and availability and to meet the rising demand, it was decided to grant full exemption from Basic Customs Duty and health cess on import of the following items related to Oxygen and Oxygen related equipment for a period of three months with immediate effect,” the ministry said. “It was also decided that Basic Customs Duty on import of Covid vaccines be also exempted with immediate effect for a period of 3 months,” it added.
Apart from medical grade oxygen, the customs duty has been exemption has been extended to Oxygen concentrators, Oxygen Cannisters, filling systems, storage tanks, ventilators, compressors, along with other similar items. The customs duty exemption will boost availability of these items as well as make them cheaper, the ministry said. The items to benefit from the decision include medical grade oxygen, oxygen concentrator along with flow meter, regulator, connectors and tubing, Vacuum Pressure Swing Alabsorption (VPSA) and Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) oxygen plants, cryogenic oxygen air separation units producing liquid/ gaseous oxygen.
Oxygen cannister, oxygen filling systems, oxygen storage tanks, oxygen cylinders, including cryogenic cylinders and tanks besides any other device from which oxygen can be generated are among several other items under this category.
“The PM directed the Revenue Department to ensure seamless and quick custom clearance of such equipment. Accordingly, the Department has nominated Gaurav Masaldan, joint secretary, Customs, as the nodal officer for issues related to customs clearance for the above-mentioned items,” the ministry said.
“The Government has taken a lot of measures in the last few days to improve supply of oxygen and medical supplies. IAF planes are bringing in cryogenic oxygen tanks from Singapore. IAF is also transporting oxygen tanks in the country to reduce travel times,” the ministry said.
Meanwhile, at least 20 patients died in Delhi’s Jaipur Golden hospital on Friday night due to low oxygen pressure. Jaipur Golden is among several hospitals in Delhi that have been complaining about shortage of oxygen supply this week.
Dr D K Baluja, the hospital’s medical superintendent, said, “These patients were critically ill and it all happened in the critical care area. Yes, the oxygen pressure was down for some time. They didn’t die during that period exactly, it takes 10 minutes here and there, but the pressure was definitely low. They are generally on a very high load of oxygen so that is the reason.”
On Friday, Delhi had reported a staggering 348 deaths due to Covid-19 as hospitals in the national capital continued to grapple with a severe shortage of medical oxygen.
Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal government, however, received flak from the Delhi High Court for not making enough arrangements for the transportation of oxygen from the eastern states.
Delhi government has not made sufficient arrangements for tankers to bring oxygen from the states of Orissa and West Bengal. The HC said that other states have made these transportation arrangements already and the Delhi government should not leave the matter entirely to the Centre.
Court’s stricture came after Centre told the High Court during hearing on oxygen shortage in the national capital, “The problem right now is not of supply. There is a lot of it in eastern states. The issue is of transportation and tankers.”
The Delhi state government on Saturday told the High Court that it cannot be oblivious to the fact that the state is not getting what it was promised. “We cannot be oblivious to the fact that what has been promised is not coming, and then expect hospitals to not cry or the Delhi government not to micromanage,” it said. The government also added that an incident is “bound to happen anytime” if the state does not get oxygen.
The high court told the Delhi government to work towards creating “your own oxygen generation plants.”
“We have been informed empty tankers have been airlifted to Durgapur and Railways is ready to transport them as soon as they are filed. We are informed Delhi has not made arrangements for tankers for other two plants. Delhi government has stated since it’s industrial state, it does not have tankers. However, Centre has informed that other states have made arrangements. Let Delhi government also take steps in this regard along with the Ministry of Road Transport Highways,” the court observed.
An angry High Court also commented, “If anyone obstructs oxygen supply, we will hang that man.”
The Delhi government told the court that the system would “collapse” if the capital doesn’t get 480 metric tonnes of oxygen. The worrying shortage of medical oxygen has been flagged by several hospitals that are overwhelmed by thousands of new daily cases of COVID-19. The issue, which has become contentious in the past few days, has been raised before the High Court by several hospitals, big and small. The oxygen shortage has caused the death of Covid patients in at least one hospital in Delhi in the last 24 hours.
“If we don’t get 480 tonnes (of oxygen), the system will collapse. We have seen in the last 24 hours. Something disastrous will happen,” the Arvind Kejriwal government told the court, adding that it received only 297 tonnes of the medical gas on Friday. The state government also sought a detailed affidavit from the centre with clear details of oxygen allocation and supply schedule.
“We are calling it a wave, it is actually a Tsunami,” the court said, and asked the centre about the preparedness in terms of infrastructure, hospitals, medical staff, medicines, vaccines and oxygen as on date.
Delhi’s Batra Hospital, which approached the High Court, said it needs 8,000 litres of oxygen, adding that it manage even with 6,000 litres. The hospital said it was given only 500 litres this morning. “We can’t manage,” the hospital told the court.
Six patients died due to shortage of oxygen at a private hospital in Amritsar on Saturday. Five of these patients were Covid-19 positive.
The managing director of Neelkanth Hospital, Sunil Devgan, blamed the district administration for the deaths. “We repeatedly asked the district administration to provide us oxygen but we got no response,” said Devgan.
He alleged that the district administration has captured oxygen plants in Amritsar to supply oxygen to Government Medical College.
With hospitals across the country stretched to their limits, thousands have turned to social media to seek help. In response, an overwhelming number of social media users and organisations have risen to the occasion — connecting Covid patients with scarce resources like oxygen cylinders and hospital beds, and compiling crowd-sourced lists of eligible plasma donors and other vital information.