Kerala will not be able to send oxygen out any longer: Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that with the COVID-19 case load surging, his state will no longer be able to supply oxygen to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, as was being done till now.

In a letter to Modi, Vijayan said the state produces 219 metric tonnes of oxygen and given its huge daily requirement, it is in no position to give this outside the state any more, and hence, it should be allowed to use it for its own needs.

The reserve stock of 450 tonnes of oxygen has now come down to 86 tonnes and with cases continuing to rise, Kerala should be given exemption with regards to oxygen supplies, he demanded.

Kerala presently has 423,000 active COVID-19 cases, and the daily test positivity rate is also at its peak of 28 per cent and given the spike, the total number of active cases is likely to cross 500,000 very soon.