Railways to run ‘Oxygen Express’ to meet high demand amid COVID-19 second wave

Empty tankers will begin their journey from Kalamboli and Boisar railway stations in and near Mumbai on April 19 to load liquid medical oxygen

PTI

April 18, 2021 / 20:26 IST

Image courtesy: Inox Air

The Railways will run “Oxygen Express” over the next few days to transport liquid medical oxygen and oxygen cylinders across the country, the national transporter said on April 18.

Amid spiraling coronavirus cases in the country, the demand for medical oxygen in the country has gone through the roof.

Empty tankers will begin their journey from Kalamboli and Boisar railway stations in and near Mumbai on April 19 to load liquid medical oxygen, officials said.

Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra state governments had earlier approached the Railways Ministry to explore whether liquid medical oxygen tankers could be moved by the rail network, they said.

On the receipt of the request from the two states, the Railways immediately explored the technical feasibility of transportation of liquid medical oxygen. It has to be transported through roll-on-roll-off service with road tankers placed on flat wagons.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

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There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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