India’s medical oxygen shortage has become so dire that a Sikh house of worship began offering free breathing sessions with shared tanks to COVID-19 patients waiting for a hospital bed.
They arrive in their cars, on foot or in three-wheeled taxis, desperate for a mask and tube attached to the precious oxygen tanks outside the gurdwara in a neighborhood outside the capital, New Delhi.
After having largely tamed the virus last year, India is in the throes of the world’s worst coronavirus surge and many of the country’s hospitals are struggling to cope with shortages of beds, medicines and oxygen.
The gurdwara management has promised to provide free oxygen to patients until they can be admitted to a hospital. Teams of volunteers check oxygen levels of newly arrived patients and provide what they need.
The gurdwara started the initiative Thursday evening, and by Friday evening had seen over 700 patients come through, reported The Hindu newspaper.
Most hospitals in India aren’t equipped with independent plants that generate oxygen directly for patients, primarily because they require an uninterrupted power supply, which is a rarity in many states.
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Ambulances carrying COVID-19 patients line up waiting for their turn to be attended to at a dedicated COVID-19 government hospital in Ahmedabad, India. Indian authorities scrambled Saturday to get oxygen tanks to hospitals where COVID-19 patients were suffocating amid the world’s worst coronavirus surge, as the government came under increasing criticism for what doctors said was its negligence in the face of a foreseeable public health disaster. Photo credit: AP Photo/Ajit Solanki
As a result, hospitals typically rely on liquid oxygen, which can be stored in cylinders and transported in cryogenic tankers. But amid the surge, supplies in hard-hit places like New Delhi are running critically short.
Last year, India kept its hospitals sufficiently stocked by diverting oxygen from industries that were shuttered by one of the world’s strictest virus lockdowns. As Indians were cooped up indoors for months, industrial tanks were repurposed for medical use. Tanker trucks raced over empty highways to transport oxygen across the vast country to hotspots.
But with the current wave, blamed on a highly contagious variant that has spread quickly and widely without the limiting benefit of a nationwide lockdown, the situation is different.
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Volunteers from a Gurdwara prepare oxygen cylinders for patients in New Delhi, India. Photo credit: AP Photo/Altaf Qadri
Scores have died in hospitals in India’s capital amid suggestions that low oxygen supplies were to blame. Doctors have taken to social media to beg public authorities to get them resupplied, and the government has mobilised to bring oxygen supplies by train, plane and truck.
The demand for oxygen from hospitals has nearly tripled to 8,000 metric tons (8,800 tons), the federal government told the Delhi High Court last week. India’s total production was 7,500 metric tons of oxygen per day.
Most of India’s oxygen production capacity is centered around industries, many of which are concentrated in India’s eastern states. The current surge in infections is in the northern and western states.
Saket Tiku, president of the All India Industrial Gases Manufacturers Association, said the biggest challenge has been transporting oxygen to where it’s urgently needed.
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A COVID-19 patient breathes with the help of an oxygen mask as he waits inside an auto rickshaw to be attended to and admitted in a dedicated COVID-19 government hospital in Ahmedabad, India. Photo credit: AP Photo/Ajit Solanki
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A COVID-19 patient sits inside a car and breathes with the help of oxygen provided by the Gurdwara. Photo credit: AP Photo/Altaf Qadri
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A patient breathes with the help of oxygen provided by the Gurdwara. Photo credit: AP Photo/Altaf Qadri
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People stand in queues to refill oxygen in cylinders in New Delhi, India. Scores have died in hospitals in India’s capital amid suggestions that low oxygen supplies were to blame. Doctors have taken to social media to beg public authorities to get them refurbishments, and the government has mobilised to bring oxygen supplies by train, plan and truck. The demand for oxygen from hospitals has nearly tripled to 8,000 metric tons, the federal government told the Delhi High Court last week. India’s total production was 7,500 metric tons of oxygen per day. Photo credit: AP
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A patient receives oxygen outside the Gurdwara. Photo credit: AP Photo/Altaf Qadri
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People wait to load a medical oxygen cylinder at a charging station on the outskirts of Prayagraj, India. Photo credit: AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh
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A COVID-19 patient breathes with the help of an oxygen mask and waits inside an auto rickshaw to be attended to and admitted to a dedicated COVID-19 government hospital in Ahmedabad, India. Photo credit: AP Photo/Ajit Solanki
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Workers load oxygen cylinders at a charging station on the outskirts of Prayagraj. Photo credit: AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh
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A worker refills medical oxygen cylinders at a charging station on the outskirts of Prayagraj, India. India's underfunded health system is tattering as the world's worst coronavirus surge wears out the nation, which set another global record in daily infections for a third straight day Saturday with 346,786. Photo credit: AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh
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A COVID-19 patient lies inside a vehicle to be attended to and admitted in a dedicated COVID-19 government hospital in Ahmedabad. India is putting oxygen tankers on special express trains as major hospitals in New Delhi begged on social media for more supplies to save COVID-19 patients who are struggling to breathe. Hospitals in New Delhi and some of the worst-hit states reported being critically short of beds and oxygen Saturday. Photo credit: AP Photo/Ajit Solanki
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A patient receives oxygen inside a car provided by a Gurdwara in New Delhi, India. Photo credit: AP Photo/Altaf Qadri
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A man waits to refill a medical oxygen cylinder at a charging station on the outskirts of Prayagraj. Photo credit: AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh
— Feature image: A COVID-19 patient receives oxygen inside a car provided by a Gurdwara in New Delhi. India’s medical oxygen shortage has become so dire that this gurdwara began offering free breathing sessions with shared tanks to COVID-19 patients waiting for a hospital bed. Photo credit: AP Photo/Altaf Qadri
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