Low oxygen supply and stock continue to cripple hospitals
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Supply system must be streamlined, backup required: doctors
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Supply system must be streamlined, backup required: doctors
At least three hospitals raised alarms over low oxygen stock on Tuesday while other hospitals too are facing difficulties in getting enough oxygen.
Triton Hospital, which has about 10 babies in the NICU, said at 9.30 a.m. they only have one backup oxygen cylinder left.
“We have 10-12 babies in the NICU and almost all of them require oxygen. Currently, we have only one backup cylinder left, apart from the one connected to the central oxygen system. For the past one week, every day has been like this and we have to send SOS to get oxygen,” said Dr. Deepali Gupta.
Vital Medical Supplies Reach India as COVID Deaths Near 200,000
Vital medical supplies began to reach India on Tuesday as hospitals starved of life-saving oxygen and beds turned away coronavirus patients, and a surge in infections pushed the death toll close to 200,000.
A shipment from Britain, including 100 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators, arrived in the capital New Delhi, though a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain had no surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses to spare.
France is sending eight large oxygen-generating plants this week while Ireland, Germany and Australia are dispatching oxygen concentrators and ventilators, an Indian foreign ministry official said, underlining the crucial need for oxygen.
Fresh spike in coronavirus cases and deaths
India reported on Thursday a record rise in coronavirus cases and deaths over the last 24 hours, with its overall caseload rising above 18 million.
With 379,257 new cases and 3,645 new deaths, India s total number of cases and deaths are now at 18.38 million and 204,832, respectively, according to health ministry data.
Updates from April 28
Grappling with an unprecedented spike in COVID-19 cases, Karnataka is facing another challenge - of tracking and tracing between 2,000 to 3,000 COVID-19 positive patients who have “gone missing”, state Revenue Minister, R. Ashoka revealed on Wednesday.
After his meeting with various department heads here, Ashoka, who is also Vice-Chairman of the Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority, told reporters that he has already directed the state police to track and trace these missing patients.
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Bodies of COVID-19 victims lay burning on Tuesday in funeral pyres cramming New Delhi s sidewalks and car parks amid an explosion of new cases, as foreign aid began arriving to surging hotspot India in efforts to keep the pandemic at bay. People are just dying, dying and dying, said Jitender Singh Shanty, who is coordinating more than 100 cremations per day at the site in the east of the city. If we get more bodies then we will cremate on the road. There is no more space here, he said, adding: We had never thought that we would see such horrible scenes.
Updates from April 27
A shipment from Britain, including 100 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators, arrived in the capital, New Delhi, though a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain had no surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses to spare.
France is sending eight large oxygen generating plants this week and Ireland, Germany and Australia are sending oxygen concentrators and ventilators, an Indian foreign ministry official said, underlining the crucial need of oxygen.
But the crisis in the metropolis of 20 million people, the epicentre of the latest wave of infections, continued unabated. Dr K.Preetham, chief of medical administration at Delhi’s Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, said the scarcity of oxygen was the main concern.