Mask protects against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. Vaccine protects against severity of Covid-19. And, oxygen gives extra hours and days to patients for medicines to alleviate symptoms. The oxygen that a Covid-19 patient requires is medical oxygen.

Medical oxygen is produced in specialised manufacturing units as industrial oxygen and purified over 93 per cent for the use of patients suffering from oxygen starvation. In the cases of Covid-19, severely ill patients need oxygen support as they fail to utilise environmental oxygen in their respiration.

Oxygen need of Covid-19 patients vary depending on the severity of their illness. On an average, less than 10 per cent Covid-19 patients need oxygen support. Fewer number of Covid-19 patients require usage of high flow nasal cannula (HFNC).

WHY COVID-19 PATIENT NEED OXYGEN SUPPLY?

An average adult person inhales and exhales about seven to eight litres of air while resting in a minute. This is about 11,000 litres of air per day. Inhaled air contains 21 per cent oxygen (environmental composition) and exhaled air contains about 15 per cent oxygen. The difference is absorbed by the lungs. If there is a shortage, it needs to be supplemented.

READ | Gasping for breath: India struggles to cope with an acute oxygen crisis in the midst of a deadly second covid wave

Covid-19 in severe cases reduces the capacity of the lungs to absorb oxygen naturally available during respiration.

WHAT IS THE WARNING SIGN?

Doctors treating Covid-19 patients say medical oxygen supplement is required when oxygen level dips below 90 per cent. They prescribe a self-test for oxygen level — six-minute walk.

A Covid-19 patient should undertake a six-minute walk. They can check oxygen level at the start of the walk and measure it again at the finishing time. If the oxygen level shows drop instead of an improvement and if the difference is of three or more per cent, it is a warning sign.

If the patient finds difficulty in finishing six-minute walk and feels breathlessness, it is a warning sign that the body is starving of oxygen. Medical oxygen support is necessary under the guidance of doctors.

HOW MUCH OXYGEN A COVID-19 PATIENT NEEDS?

Each Covid-19 patient is different from the rest. Among those who need oxygen supplement, some may require one to two litres of oxygen per minute. Factoring in wastage in oxygen supply and utilisation capacity of the lungs at the moment, this requirement may translate into three to four litres of medical oxygen per minute.

But there could be patients requiring HFNC support. Their oxygen requirement could be 60 litres per minute or 3,600 litres per hour. In some cases, doctors say, the oxygen requirement need can go up to 86,000 litres per day per patient.

A typical oxygen cylinder lasts about four hours for patients requiring HFNC support. In the backdrop of oxygen supply shortage, there is a long outside oxygen refilling centres in several states.

This has pushed the demand for oxygen concentrators very high. There is acute scarcity of oxygen concentrators and reports of black-marketing of the machine are common. Oxygen concentrators use environmental oxygen to produce concentrated or purified oxygen to be inhaled using a cannula.

Many people are using oxygen concentrators at home for isolated Covid-19 patients. Oxygen concentrators help improve oxygen levels in the body, but doctors say in only those cases in which Covid-19 patients require two-three litres of medical oxygen per minute. If the patient still feels breathlessness, she should be hospitalised.

The doctors treating Covid-19 patients say that the cases of any greater requirement of oxygen by patients needs hospitalisation as there are many other factors than just the oxygen level that needs to be accounted for in managing the coronavirus infection.

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