India increases oxygen supplies amid crisis
NEW DELHI — Under order by the Supreme Court, India’s government Thursday agreed to provide more medical oxygen to hospitals in the capital, potentially easing a 2-week-old shortage that worsened the country’s exploding coronavirus crisis.
Government officials also denied reports that they’ve been slow in distributing lifesaving medical supplies donated from abroad.
The government raised the oxygen supply to 730 tons from 490 tons per day in New Delhi as ordered by the Supreme Court. The court intervened after 12 COVID-19 patients, including a doctor, died last week at New Delhi’s Batra Hospital when it ran out of medical oxygen for 80 minutes.
On Wednesday night, 11 other COVID-19 patients died when pressure in an oxygen supply line stopped working at a government medical college hospital in Chengalpet in southern India, possibly because of a faulty valve, the Times of India newspaper reported.
Hospital authorities said they repaired the oxygen line last week, but that the consumption of oxygen had doubled since then, the newspaper said.
The number of new confirmed cases in India on Thursday surpassed 400,000 for the second time since the devastating surge began last month.
The 412,262 new cases pushed the country’s official tally of confirmed cases to more than 21 million. The Health Ministry also reported 3,980 deaths over the past 24 hours, boosting the country’s total to 230,168. Experts believe both figures are an undercount.
K. Vijay Raghvan, a principal scientific adviser to the government, characterized the explosion of cases “a very critical time for the country.”
Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, suggested a complete shutdown in India may be needed two to four weeks to help ease the surge of infections.
“As soon as the cases start coming down, you can vaccinate more people and get ahead of the trajectory of the outbreak of the pandemic,” Fauci told Indian television CNN News18 news channel Thursday. He didn’t provide specifics of what a shutdown should entail.
He suggested India should mobilize its military to erect field hospitals that could ease the pressure on hospitals packed with patients.
Demand for hospital oxygen has increased sevenfold since last month, a government official said, as India struggles to set up large oxygen plants and transport oxygen to where it’s needed. Ships carrying oxygen are bound for India from Bahrain and Kuwait in the Persian Gulf, officials said.
Most hospitals in India don’t have their own plants to generate oxygen for patients, As a result, hospitals typically rely on liquid oxygen, which can be stored in cylinders and transported in tanker trucks. But amid the virus surge, supplies in hard-hit places like New Delhi have run critically short.
Dr. Himaal Dev, chief of the critical care unit at Apollo Hospital in the southern city of Bengaluru, said COVID-19 patients in intensive care wards need at least 10-15 liters of oxygen per minute because of reduced lung function.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said India has enough oxygen but faces capacity constraints moving it to where it’s needed. Most oxygen is produced in the eastern parts of India, while the demand has risen in northern and western parts.
The outbreak also has spread to neighboring countries which share porous borders with India.
In Nepal, thousands of people rushed to leave the country ahead of a halt to all international flights because of spiking COVID-19 cases.
Nepali citizens leaving to go back to their jobs in foreign countries or to visit family members and a few foreign tourists lined up at Kathmandu’s airport before flights stopped at midnight Thursday. Domestic flights in Nepal were halted Monday.
Nepal’s main cities and towns have been in lockdown since last month as the number of coronavirus cases and deaths continue surging. Nepal recorded its highest number of daily infections, 8,659, on Wednesday and 58 deaths, which was also a record.