Nightmare in India: Hospital shortages, oxygen, COVID-19 cases among the worst in the world, alarming new virus strain

To date, 16.3 million have been approved in India. COVID-19 cases, 187 thousand people died from the virus. people. India is currently the second most affected country in the world, second only to the United States.

Critical lack of oxygen

In recent days, several Indian hospitals have reported that they no longer have oxygen or have their last reserves.

People in the country are dying without oxygen, and most intensive care beds in the Indian capital Delhi are occupied, the BBC writes.

The New Delhi Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the government to divert oxygen used in industry to hospitals. “People in hospitals cannot be allowed to die from lack of oxygen. Pray, borrow, run: this is a national emergency,” the judges said in response to a request from the New Delhi Hospital asking for court intervention. wrote the AP news agency.

Pray, borrow, kiss – this is a national emergency.

The government is urging oxygen tanker trucks to replenish hospital supplies more quickly.

Indian Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said Thursday that “supply and demand are monitored around the clock.” On Twitter, he said the government had increased its oxygen quota for the seven worst-hit states to meet an exponential jump in demand.

Beds are missing, crematoria are overcrowded

The quarantine and strict bans cause pain, fear and suffering for many people in New Delhi and other cities.

Across India, ambulances rush from hospital to hospital trying to find a free bed. And where the death toll has increased multiple times, grieving loved ones line up at crematoriums.

“Every day I get many calls from patients who desperately need a place in the hospital. The demand is much higher than the supply, ”said Dr. Sanjay Gururai, a physician at the Bangalore-based Shanti Hospital and Research Center.

“I try to find beds for patients every day. It’s so frustrating that I can’t help you. Last week, three of my patients died at home because they couldn’t get beds. As a doctor, it’s a terrible feeling, “Gururajas told the AP.

Uttar Pradesh resident Yogesh Dixit told the AP earlier this week that he had to buy two oxygen cylinders for his sick father, each costing 12,000 rupees (132 euros), which is double the normal price. Y. Dixit had to do this because the stock at Luknau State Hospital was out of stock.

He bought two, “because doctors can order another oxygen cylinder at any time,” he said, adding that he had to sell his wife’s jewelry to cover the cost.

The main cremation center in Lucknow, the capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh, reached 200 bodies on Sunday.

“The bodies were everywhere, they were cremated on the sidewalks to walk. “I have never had such a flow of corpses in my life,” Shekhar Chakraborty told the AP.

In Kanpur, as well as in the city of Uttar Pradesh, 35 temporary platforms for body cremation were installed along the Ganges River.

The Ministry of Health has reported that of the 7,500 tons of oxygen produced per day, 6,600 tons are for medical use.

The ministry also reported that 75 train cars had been converted into temporary hospitals in the country’s capital. This created 1,200 additional beds for COVID-19 patients.

A new strain of the triple mutation virus is concerning

India, suffering from a second wild wave, faces another threat: a triple-mutated strain of the virus. A double mutant strain has emerged in India a little earlier.

The new triple mutant strain of coronavirus has been identified by researchers in patient samples in four states: Maharashtra, Delhi, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh. Scientists have called it the “Bengal strain” and say it could be even more contagious than the previously reported double mutation strain.

The Times of India spoke with Vinodus Scaria, a researcher at the Indian Institute of CSIR-Genomics and Integrated Biology, who said that the triple mutant strain was dangerous because the virus could adhere to human cells and hide from the immune system.

According to V. Scarios, the new strain could have evolved from the previous double-mutated strain, which, according to experts, caused a big jump in COVID-19 cases in the country.

Researcher Sreedhar Chinnaswamy told the Times of India that the variant also has the E484K mutation, which is characteristic of strains found in both South Africa and Brazil.

“In other words, even being infected with another variant of the virus or even being vaccinated may not protect against this strain,” Chinnaswamy said.

As the country’s hospitals face a second wave of coronavirus, bed and oxygen shortages, this new threat to India is concerning.

Relaxed too soon?

“We never thought the second wave would hit us so badly,” wrote Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, director of Biocon & Biocon Biologics, an Indian health company, in the Economic Times. The fact that the country thought it had already dealt with the virus led to an unforeseen shortage of medicines, medical supplies and hospital beds.

Health experts say the country has relaxed security measures too quickly, mistakenly believing that the threat of the virus has disappeared. Major weddings and festivals were allowed, as well as numerous political rallies before local elections, writes The Guardian.

India has used around 133 million so far. vaccine doses, mainly worldwide after the US and China. However, in a state with 1.38 billion. population, which means that only 8% of the population received at least one dose.

The government planned to offer vaccines to all adults next month. Currently, workers in key sectors and people over 45 years of age are being vaccinated. However, stocks are tight in many states and the institute that makes the AstraZeneca vaccine in India has announced that it is reducing its production forecasts. The institute currently produces between 60 and 70 million doses a month and expects to reach 100 million doses by May. However, it now appears that this will not be achieved until July, writes The Guardian.