‘IT IS GRAVE’

Desperate India Hospital Chain Begs for COVID Help, Saying It’s Down to Last Hour of Oxygen

A major private hospital chain in New Delhi has been reduced to begging for oxygen supplies on social media.

On Thursday, India’s health ministry recorded the highest one-day tally for coronavirus cases anywhere in the world since the pandemic began. On Friday, it broke that global record once again. The nation recorded 332,730 coronavirus cases on Friday, up from 314,835 the day before. Inevitably, deaths are also on the rise as the surge accelerates—2,263 deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours. The desperate situation was underlined Friday when major private hospital chain in New Delhi was reduced to begging for oxygen supplies on social media, with one facility saying it was down to an hour’s supply of oxygen. Public-health experts fear the situation could worsen further if the outbreaks jump from the cities to rural areas with even more fragile health systems. “It is grim. It is grave... there is an extreme shortage of ICU beds,” T.S. Singh Deo, health minister of state of Chhattisgarh, told Reuters. “We’ll need to be very careful in the rural areas. If it spreads there, then it will be out of control.”