Coronavirus: calls for more oxygen, hospital beds as India slips deeper into virus crisis
- Hospitals usually reserved for employees of ministries or public sector companies should convert some of their wards into Covid-19 facilities, the government said
- India is the world’s second most-infected nation with almost 14.8 million cases of coronavirus. One-in-six people who underwent testing on Sunday returned positive results
Hospitals usually reserved for employees of ministries or public sector companies should convert some of their wards into Covid-19 facilities equipped with ICU and oxygen-supported beds, ventilators, laboratories and health care staff, the government said.
“This will go a long way to address the shortage of beds being reported from some states,” the ministry added.
Why is the world’s No 1 vaccine maker struggling to inoculate its people?
Special trains would transport oxygen tankers to needy states, while the government said oxygen use for industrial purposes would be limited.
In the capital New Delhi – the worst-hit city in India – 25,500 infections were reported in the past 24 hours.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted late Sunday that there was an “acute shortage of oxygen”, adding in capital letters that “oxygen has become an emergency” in the megapolis.
“The cases are rising very fast … only 100 beds left,” Kejriwal said earlier on Sunday in a video statement, adding additional beds would be set up at some schools and a sport complex.
His government has said that millions of pilgrims who attended an ongoing religious festival – the Kumbh Mela – will have to quarantine for two weeks if they returned to Delhi.
Hong Kong slaps 14-day travel ban on India, Pakistan, and the Philippines
Nearly 3,700 people have tested positive in the past week in the city of Haridwar, which lies along the Ganges river where the Kumbh Mela is being observed, the Uttarakhand state government said. Health experts have warned the festival could become a “superspreader” event.
In West Bengal state, where an election is being held over several phases with rival parties holding huge rallies – sparking further superspreader fears – Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appealed for more oxygen and coronavirus medicines such as Remdesivir.
Banerjee added that her state needed more vaccines to tackle the outbreak. India has administered more than 122 million jabs so far, but some states have complained of low stocks and experts have said that the roll-out needs to be sped up.
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress party, a small player in the West Bengal polls, tweeted on Sunday that he was suspending all his rallies in the state “in view of the Covid situation”.
Opinion | Vaccine challenges, feckless decisions worsen India’s Covid-19 trauma
A makeshift 1,000-bed hospital – the biggest virus facility in the nation – that was built in place of a wholesale market was opened on Sunday to ease pressure on the overburdened health care system.
Bangladesh, which is under a strict nationwide lockdown amid a spike in cases, has recorded 718,950 infections so far.