The COVID-19 crisis in India continues to overwhelm the country’s hospitals. The Shanti Mukand Hospital in Delhi was forced to display a sign at their entrance gate warning passersby that new patients will not be allowed into the premises due to lack of oxygen. This has become a familiar sight for families of COVID-19 patients. Several hospitals in Delhi are running out of much-needed oxygen.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal pleaded with the government, through a tweet, to provide hospitals with oxygen as some hospitals only had a few hours of oxygen left. An oxygen tanker was sent to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital after the hospital staff said that 60 patients were on the verge of death.
At another hospital in Delhi, 20 patients died of Covid-19 due to a lack of oxygen. Dr DK Baluja, medical director at the Jaipur Golden Hospital, said that the supplies and oxygen his hospital had were exhausted. India’s medical system is struggling to handle the wave of COVID-19 cases across the country.
The increase in Covid-19 cases has not slowed down. This week, India reported a world record increase in Covid-19 cases for the third day in a row. Hospitals that are running low on oxygen often have to wait hours for a new supply.
In many cases, patients die before new supplies of oxygen arrive, despite the government’s efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19. In Delhi, there is limited space available for cremations. Officials have been asked to find space for cremations. Crematoriums are overwhelmed with the number of dead bodies they are receiving daily.
Families of Covid-19 victims, living in Delhi, are furious with their government’s response. In early March, Indian scientists warned government officials that the Covid-19 variant in the country was more contagious than other variants.
Unfortunately, India’s government did not take this advice seriously. Not many precautions were taken to restrict movement in communities. The Federal Government did not design an effective strategy to deal with the worst consequences of the virus. Recently, a fire broke out at a Covid-19 hospital and killed 18 patients.
The total number of infections in India has surpassed 18 million. All over Delhi, hospital beds are in short supply. Pictures have emerged of relatives who wait outside hospital grounds with severely affected Covid-19 patients sitting in chairs and lying on benches.
Susan Kress, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, says the messaging and communication reported by India’s government is not clear. There is a lot of speculation among people living in New Delhi about the guidelines.
India is now the worst-hit country in the world. However, experts say this is not a crisis that will remain in India. The whole world is at risk. “The virus doesn’t respect borders, or nationalities, or age, or sex or religion,” says Dr Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the World Health Organization. A recent flight from Delhi to Hong Kong alarmed authorities after 50 passengers tested positive for the virus.
The government is planning to vaccinate 250 million people by July. Serum Institute of India (SII) is the world’s biggest vaccine maker. The government is relying on SII to manufacture the vaccines required to reach its target in July.
Many organizational issues are surrounding the vaccination process. Millions of Indians were signing up for the vaccine at the same time which resulted in the vaccine portal crashing. Some experts said that the government should have begun the vaccination process by targeting people over the age of 45. At present, everyone over the age of 18 is eligible to be vaccinated.
The situation is so dire and so many young people have died or are critically ill. The next few days will determine if the government can grasp control and coordinate oxygen and restrict the flow of its citizens in New Delhi. No preparations were enough for the scale of this outbreak. The medical system across India is buckling under pressure. New Delhi residents feel helpless and angry. They can only wait and wear masks, practice social distancing and hope for the best.
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