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2021.04.24 05:37 GMT+8

Oxygen shortage threatens thousands in India as pandemic cases surge

Updated 2021.04.24 05:42 GMT+8
CGTN

Cases of the coronavirus have skyrocketed in India, with hospitals begging for more supplies, the most important one being oxygen, to help patients struggling to breathe, the Associated Press reports.

For the second consecutive day, the country set a global record for daily infections with 332,730.

The country has the second highest number of confirmed cases in the world with 16 million cases in a population of 1.4 billion people. At least 2,263 deaths have been recorded in the past 24 hours.

Max Healthcare, a major private hospital chain serving North and West India, pleaded for help on Twitter late Thursday, saying that one of its facilities had "less than an hour's Oxygen supplies" with 700 patients admitted.

As the deaths continue to overwhelm India’s medical system, people in New Delhi are forced to turn to makeshift facilities for mass cremation and burials - in at least one case, burning bodies in a parking lot, Reuters reports.

Jitender Singh Shunty, who runs a non-profit medical service in India’s capitol, said that 78 bodies were cremated in a single day at one location on Tuesday He said last year, the maximum number of bodies he helped cremate in one day was 18.

The government has been scrambling to resupply hospitals with medical oxygen. The biggest issue with the crisis comes from the fact that oxygen supplies are not reaching hospitals in time.

Additional medical oxygen has been trucked into the capital from industrial zones in eastern India.

Oxygen facilities are reportedly spread across seven states. Because of its hazardous nature, liquid oxygen must be transported in a limited number of specialized tanks.

Some states have blockaded some of the shipments to keep supplies for themselves.

The Indian government is now using railways to move tankers from refilling plants.

The government is also issuing orders to convert tankers that transport argon and nitrogen into ones for oxygen.

Other countries are looking to assist the country as it struggles with this second and more deadly wave.

China said that it is in discussion in helping India control its surge in cases. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also said he is looking at how the UK could help India.

The U.S. is maintaining its ban of exports of raw materials for manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines, despite India’s request to lift the restrictions.

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