The Centre has issued a directive to the states and union territories to ban the use of liquid oxygen for non-medical purposes in order to meet the sudden 10-fold jump in demand at hospitals struggling to deal with the surge in Covid-19.

In a statement, the Centre on Sunday directed “the State/Union Territory governments to ensure that use of liquid oxygen is not allowed for any non-medical purpose and that all manufacturing units may maximise their production of liquid oxygen and make it available to the Government for use for medical purposes only, with immediate effect and until further orders.”

The Centre further ordered that “all stocks of liquid oxygen, should also be made available to the Government for use for medical purposes,” and that “no exception is allowed to any industry with regard to the use of liquid oxygen.”

The Centre has also mobilised the air force and railways to speed up the bulk transport of oxygen.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the government has taken an important decision "to boost oxygen availability to hospitals and help people" across the country to fight the deadly second wave of Covid-19 sweeping across the country.

According to an official statement, as many as 551 medical oxygen plants will be set up in government hospitals to cover all districts across the country using the PM-Cares Fund.