Like India, Pakistan may also face shortage of oxygen for the treatment of respiratory insufficiencies during the third wave of COVID-19 if the life-saving gas continues to be supplied for the industrial sector, The News reported.

The country’s oxygen producers warned on Friday that if cases continued to surge, hospitals might face shortage of the gas, as the plants were now operating at maxium capacity and bulk of the oxygen was now being supplied for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

“Hundred percent of oxygen produced by us at the Pakistan Oxygen Limited is being supplied to the healthcare facilities due to multifold increase in its demand after surge in COVID-19 cases. If cases continue to rise, hospitals may face shortage of oxygen as we are producing at our maximum capacity," an official of the Pakistan Oxygen Limited, an oxygen producing company, told The News.

There were around 4,652 COVID-19 patients on high and low oxygen throughout the country as well as on ventilators on Friday, National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) data said.

Health officials claimed that patients requiring oxygen were on the rise due to rise in the COVID-19 positivity rate and hospitalisation of more number of patients in the country.

Health officials claimed that the number of people with COVID-19 pneumonia was very high during the third wave of the pandemic in Pakistan as compared to the first and second wave.

They said it was evident from the figures which show that over 4,652 patients were on oxygen while hospitalisation of patients was constantly on the rise in the country.

“As compared to first and second wave, COVID-19 pneumonia cases are very high this time and this number is constantly rising. Most of the hospitalised patients require oxygen as the life-saving gas is the most important intervention in saving COVID-19 patients at the health facilities. NCOC has already warned that 90 percent of our beds with oxygen facility are already filled," Shahzad Ali Khan, Dean of Health Services Academy, told The News.