India Covid: Patients dying without oxygen amid Delhi surge
Published
23 hours ago
Most hospitals are full and many of them are refusing new admissions owing to the uncertainty over oxygen supply.
Oxygen-equipped ambulances are in short supply and it's becoming difficult for families to transport patients to hospitals even if they find a bed.
I know a few cases where patients have died because they did not get high-flow oxygen support. Every morning starts with frantic calls from friends, family and colleagues asking for a bed, oxygen cylinders or medicines. The number of people I am able to help is reducing every day as the doctors and officials who could earlier help are no longer available to speak on the phone. Helplines are not working and the vendors who could earlier help have run out of supplies.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56881083
Covid: Countries send aid to ease India's oxygen emergency.
International efforts are under way to help India as the country suffers critical oxygen shortages amid a devastating surge in Covid cases.
The UK has begun sending ventilators and oxygen concentrator devices. EU members are also due to send aid.
The US is lifting a ban on sending raw materials abroad, enabling India to make more of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
India's capital Delhi has extended its lockdown as overcrowded hospitals continue to turn patients away.
The government has approved plans for more than 500 oxygen generation plants across the country to boost supplies.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56882167
But even that is proving to be a difficult task as prices of oxygen cylinders, concentrators and essential medicines have skyrocketed on the black market.
Anshu Priya spent most of her Sunday looking for an oxygen cylinder as her father-in-law's condition continued to deteriorate. She couldn't find any hospital bed in Delhi or in its suburb of Noida. Her search for an oxygen cylinder in shops was also futile, forcing her to turn to the black market.
She paid the hefty amount of 50,000 rupees ($670; £480) to procure a cylinder from the black market. It costs 6,000 rupees in normal times.
