SWAT: The price of oxygen cylinder has increased up to 500 per cent after the recent rise in the number of Covid-19 patients in Swat, according to civil society members.

They demanded of the government to take action against the dealers of the oxygen cylinders and regulate the prices.

They said that a small oxygen cylinder, which cost Rs200 last year, was now being sold at Rs1,100.

“The huge price hike has caused multiple problems to the families of Covid-19 patients,” said Itbar Ali, a resident of Mingora.

The civil society members said that they were faced with a grave issue as the cost of the medical oxygen cylinders was increasing continuously.

They said that poor relatives of coronavirus patients were facing problems to arrange oxygen cylinders for nears and dears ones.

They said that the price of a small oxygen cylinder was increased from Rs200 to Rs300 during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In the second wave of the Covid-19, the price of the same cylinder was increased to Rs700. An acute shortage also surfaced during the second wave of the pandemic and people had to buy the cylinder by paying twenty times high price,” said Ashfaq Khan, a civil society member in Saidu Sharif.

The local people said that the price of a small cylinder reached Rs1,100 and it was increasing day by day.

“My father is suffering from Covid-19 and he has breathing problems so I have to get two cylinders for him in 24 hours. But the price a cylinder has reached Rs1,100. It is not affordable for me,” said Khan Mohammad, another resident of Mingora.

Swat is among the few districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where Covid-19 cases are higher than others. According to the district health office, there are 1,184 cases of Covid-19 and 208 people have died of the pandemic.

Dr Najibullah, a spokesman of Saidu Teaching Hospital, said that the daily demand for the medical oxygen cylinder also increased due to large number of Covid-19 patients.

He said that the hospital required 850 cylinders of 240 cubic feet on daily basis.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2021