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Why Florida’s Covida Flood Fucks Water Supply (Tip: Oxygen)

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Wednesday Tampa Bay water availability he announced A strange side effect of the uncontrolled increase in Covid in Florida was that no liquid oxygen was obtained to treat its water. More than 17,000 Covid patients — who need supplemental oxygen to survive — are now there hospitalized throughout the state, and there is not enough oxygen to walk around.

Even though vaccines are very useful, the pandemic in Florida is worse than ever. The state is the average 20,000 cases and more than 200 deaths day, putting tremendous strain on his hospital system. Simply half The entire population of Florida is completely vaccinated.

“What we do know is that the lack of liquid oxygen is a shortage of drivers and the need for available supplies is due to the Covid-19 pandemic and that it needs to be directed to local hospitals,” says Brandon Moore, a Tampa Bay Water spokesman. (Requests for comments sent to Matheson Tri-Gas, his oxygen supplier, were not immediately returned.) The mayor of Orlando asked the residents a week later. limit water use for the same reason.

Add water problems to the growing list of consequences of a pandemic that is currently being hospitalized uninserted. This means less space and resources for non-Covid patients appearing in ER, and now less oxygen in systems that provide clean water to Floridians.

But why do you need your oxygen even more oxygen2Oh? The Tampa Bay Water truck converts them into liquid oxygen, gas, and then adds a spark of electricity to convert it to ozone. Moore says it is used in two separate facilities for two surfaces: ozone kills nasties like bacteria and viruses, and breaks down hydrogen sulfide in another plant, a natural gas that smells of odor. rotten eggs.

Electricity requires a lot of liquid oxygen — a load of seven to nine tanker trucks a week, between the two facilities — both to disinfect the water and make sure it doesn’t come out of the faucets that smell like hell. “Ozone-converted liquid oxygen is one of the most powerful (if not the most powerful) disinfectants in the water industry,” says Moore.

Tampa Bay has reduced its liquid oxygen supply by half, Moore says. So they are diverting the oxygen they have to the treatment plant to properly disinfect the water, as they cannot change this process. However, in a plant that removes hydrogen sulfide, they can replace ozone with sodium hypochlorite, also known as bleach. But in light of the crisis, availability is demanding customers reduce water use, such as irrigating meadows and washing cars. “In this scenario, the demand means less water to treat the less water it needs,” Moore says. But, he added, “it is very important for residents to know that the quality of their drinking water remains safe.”

At the same time, it is very important to get the extra oxygen that Covid patients need. Covid-19 strains the lungs, preventing oxygen from passing through the air into the bloodstream, which is necessary for the heart, brain and other vital organs to function properly. Blood oxygen saturation is over 92 percent of the target; it’s below 90 percent and you start to feel breathless. (At the hospital, they measure this by sliding a device called a pulse oximeter on the patient’s finger, which emits light rays to measure blood oxygen in a non-invasive way.) After saturation drops below 90 percent, doctors should place Covid-19. patients with supplemental oxygen, advises Disease Control Centers.

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