DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday inaugurated a field hospital having a facility of 100 oxygen beds in Karnal. He also virtually inaugurated 30 oxygen bed facilities in two hospitals of Assandh, also in Karnal district. Education Minister Kanwar Pal was present on this occasion and BJP MP from Karnal, Sanjay Bhatia, attended the event through video conferencing. The chief minister said the COVID-19 spread is not confined to urban areas only, it is also hitting rural areas hard. For this, everyone should ensure that necessary arrangements are made on a large scale, he said per an official statement. Khattar said Haryana's oxygen quota fixed by the Centre currently is 282 metric tonnes daily. A request has been made to the Centre to further increase this quota so as to ensure that in future, if the number of patients increases, an uninterrupted supply of oxygen could be ensured, he said. Khattar said a portal has been started to ensure the supply of oxygen to patients in home isolation. So far, nearly 1,000 applications have been received on this portal, the CM said. The chief minister said 1,800 vaccination centres have been set up in the state and so far 43 lakh vaccine doses have been administered. The vaccination drive in the state is being further intensified, he said, adding that 3.50 lakh vaccines will be made available soon. Vaccination doses will also be administered to 8,000 teams conducting surveys in rural areas to assess the spread of the infection. He urged social organisations and private institutions to join hands to strengthen the government's efforts in the fight against the pandemic, saying "we all have to collectively give a tough fight to this pandemic". Earlier, the chief minister launched "Karnal Resource Locator Mobile App", prepared by the district administration. The chief minister said information about all necessary facilities related to hospitals, ambulances, medical stores, plasma donors and vaccination centres can be obtained on this application. In another meeting with officials of the Panchayat Department, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala said the state government will soon release funds up to Rs 50,000 for each gram panchayat. He said isolation wards will be set up in villages through these funds and other necessary items associated with COVID treatment such as oximeters, steam machines, thermometers and blood pressure monitoring machines will also be arranged. Chautala said that the government will allocate Rs 30,000 to each villages having population less than 10,000 and for those with more than 10,000, the government will allocate Rs 50,000. He said isolation centres will be built in chaupals, government schools and Anganwadis. (editor@dailyworld.in)