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23-04-2021
Bureau Report
NEW DELHI: India is reporting record number of coronavirus cases and deaths amid an alarming shortage of medical oxygen and beds in its hospitals as a brutal second wave of the virus overwhelms its under-funded, fragile healthcare system.
On Friday, the world’s second-most populous nation reported a single-day high of nearly 332,730 new cases and record 2,263 deaths.
Hospitals across northern and western India, including the capital New Delhi, say they are fully occupied and running out of oxygen supplies.
The prominent Edhi charity, based in Pakistan, has offered to send ambulances and medical staff to help aid neighboring India’s government as cases of the coronavirus have spiked in that country, the charity’s head says.
Faisal Edhi, the managing trustee of the Edhi Foundation, confirmed PMI that he had written a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We sympathise with you greatly and during this strenuous time, we would like to extend our help in the form of a fleet of 50 ambulances along with our services to assist you in addressing, and further circumventing, the current health conditions,” the letter reads.
Indian hospitals plead for oxygen
India has put oxygen tankers on special express trains as major hospitals in New Delhi begged on social media for more supplies to save COVID-19 patients who are struggling to breathe.
The government started running Oxygen Express trains with tankers to meet the scramble at hospitals, Railroad Minister Piyush Goyal.
“We have surplus oxygen at plants which are far off from places where it is needed right now. Trucking oxygen is a challenge from these plants,” said Saket Tiku, president of the All India Industrial Gases Manufacturers Association.
“We have ramped up the production as oxygen consumption is rising through the roof but we have limitations and the biggest challenge right now is transporting it to where it’s urgently needed. ”
The New Delhi government issued a list of a dozen government and private hospitals facing an acute shortage of oxygen supplies.
‘This is on you’: Top opposition leader slams government
As India’s hospitals issued desperate appeals for oxygen, India’s senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi says the government is responsible for the current crisis over oxygen shortages and lack of ICU beds.
“Corona can cause a fall in oxygen level but its #OxygenShortage & lack of ICU beds which is causing many deaths. GOI, this is on you,” Gandhi posted on Twitter.
COVID meltdown exposes new front in India’s digital divide
People in need and those with information or resources are sharing telephone numbers of volunteers, vendors who have oxygen cylinders or drugs and details of which medical facility can take patients using hash-tags such as #COVIDSOS.
Many people are creating Twitter accounts to seek help from those in positions of power, officials manning helpline numbers said but hundreds of millions of mainly poorer Indians do not have access to a smart-phone or use social media.
