The government will procure one lakh portable oxygen concentrators and install 500 more pressure swing adsorption oxygen plants from the PM Cares Fund, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday, asserting this will help improve access to oxygen, especially in district headquarters and tier-2 cities.

The PMO said in a statement that the oxygen concentrators and the new PSA plants will greatly augment the supply of oxygen near the demand clusters.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Modi to discuss the measures needed to improve the supply of Liquid Medical Oxygen for COVID-19 management.

Modi has directed that these oxygen concentrators should be procured at the earliest and provided in states with high case burden, the statement said.

The 500 new PSA oxygen plants sanctioned under PM Cares Fund are in addition to the earlier sanctioned 713 PSA plants under this fund, the statement added.

Modi tweeted, "1 lakh portable oxygen concentrators will be procured, 500 more PSA oxygen plants sanctioned from PM-CARES.

This will improve access to oxygen, especially in district HQs and Tier-2 cities.

" These 500 PSA plants will be established with the transfer of the indigenous technology developed by DRDO and CSIR to the domestic manufacturers.

Establishing PSA plants and procurement of portable oxygen concentrators will greatly augment the supply of oxygen near the demand clusters, thereby addressing the current logistical challenges in transporting oxygen from plants to hospitals, the statement said.

The demand for life-saving gas has increased with the surge in the COVID cases with several hospitals sensing out SOS for its supply.

Several deaths have also been reported due to lack of oxygen supply in hospitals.