People in India are dying gasping for oxygen. Hospitals are full so many are turned away and some dye at hospital entrances. Even empty oxygen cylinders are hard to find. With more than 300,000 coronavirus cases a day in India for the past two weeks, medical supply chains have broken.
NPR reported that On May 4, 2021, as many as 24 patients died after the Chamarajanagar district hospital in the southern state of Karnataka ran out of oxygen. On May 1, 2021, 12 COVID-19 patients died at Delhi‘s Batra Hospital after an oxygen delivery was delayed by just 90 minutes. Several more such incidents have been reported across the country.
The Allahabad High Court in northern India on Tuesday declared that hospital deaths from oxygen shortages amount to “genocide.”This humanitarian nightmare is being called callus criminal negligence.
A Sikh house of worship in Delhi allows people to come sit in front of the temple where they can breath free oxygen. Another organization has converted empty buses into oxygen waiting areas. The buses are parked in front of hospitals to help people who can not get in. Many other countries including the US have pour aid into India. Including empty cylinders and oxygen concentrators. On April 28, 2021 the U.S. dispatched to the Indian capital its first shipment, which included more than 400 oxygen cylinders and 960,000 rapid-testing kits. Much of that aid became mired in customs queues. The aid was still not distributed a week later.
India has banned the use of oxygen for industries and is diverting most of it for medical use. The problem is distribution. Liquid medical oxygen is flammable and in most cases can’t be flown. It has to move by road, rail or sea freight. Many oxygen-tanker drivers got sick with COVID-19 right at the moment when oxygen demand skyrocketed. Officials had to arrange replacement drivers, and it took time. According to the Delhi government, hospitals are asking for close to 1,000 metric tons of liquid oxygen per day on average, but only 40% of that is being supplied. The biggest problem is that government bureaucracy has slowed things down.