A woman is consoled by her relative outside a hospital in Ahmedabad, India, April 26, 2021, after her husband died from COVID-19 complications. (CNS/Reuters/Amit Dave)
Thrissur, India Catholic hospital directors in India told Catholic News Service they did not have enough facilities to treat patients as India set records for the number of COVID-19 deaths numbers many people believe were underreported. The situation is very bad. No beds available anywhere in the hospital. Patients are on the corridors and many are dying because no beds, no oxygen, Fr. P.A. George, director of the Holy Family Hospital in New Delhi, told CNS.
Exhausted workers, who bring dead bodies for cremation, sit on the rear step of an ambulance inside a crematorium, in New Delhi, India, on April 24. Delhi has been cremating so many bodies of coronavirus victims that authorities are getting requests to start cutting down trees in city parks, as a second record surge has brought India s tattered healthcare system to its knees. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
In May 2020, the last time I spoke with Mathew Abraham, C.Ss.R, M.D., the director general of the Catholic Health Association of India, he was profoundly concerned about how well India’s public health system would stand up to a significant coronavirus outbreak. Almost a year later as a second wave of Covid-19 has thrown India into turmoil, I emailed Father Abraham for what I assumed would be a sobering reassessment. Unfortunately, he was unable to speak with me this time. His secretary reported that he was out sick, recovering from his own bout of Covid-19.
Bishops set prayer day as pandemic deaths spiral in India
At least 20 Covid-19 patients die in a Delhi hospital due to a shortage of oxygen as the crisis worsens
A volunteer wearing protective gear urges people in a market to wear masks as part of an awareness drive against the spread of Covid-19 in Siliguri in India s West Bengal state on April 23. (Photo: AFP)
Catholic leaders have urged their people across India to strictly follow Covid-19 restrictions as they dedicated a day of prayer to contain the infection spreading like wildfire.
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India president Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai has written to bishops asking them to hold a day of prayer and fast on May 7 seeking divine intervention to save the country from the spreading pandemic.
India reports COVID-19 patients dying of lack of oxygen; leak kills 22 cruxnow.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cruxnow.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
India reports COVID-19 patients dying of lack of oxygen; leak kills 22
Patients suffering from COVID-19 receive oxygen at a hospital in New Delhi April 15, 2021. (CNS photo/Danish Siddiqui, Reuters)
By Catholic News Service • Posted April 22, 2021
NEW DELHI (CNS) An oxygen leak at a government hospital in India has killed 22 COVID-19 patients as the entire country faces a huge shortage of oxygen to support pandemic-hit patients.
Ucanews.com reported that the leak in the main liquid oxygen storage tank at Zakir Hussain Hospital in Maharashtra state led to a drop in the oxygen pressure of ventilators, and the patients died immediately April 21.