INDIA GETS FOREIGN OXYGEN AID
Oxygen equipment arrives as country hits record 3,689 deaths yesterday
MORE emergency medical aid from foreign donors to alleviate a dire oxygen shortage arrived yesterday, as Covid-19 deaths in the country rose to a new record.
India is setting almost-daily records for new infections and deaths as the virus crisis engulfs overstretched hospitals in cities and spreads into rural regions.
The country of 1.3 billion reported 3,689 deaths yesterday — the highest single-day rise yet in the pandemic, to take the overall toll to more than 215,000. Just under 400,000 infections were added, bringing the total number of cases past 19.5 million.
The latest figures came as medical equipment, including oxygen-generation plants, was flown into the capital here from France and Germany as part of a huge international effort.
“We are here because we are bringing help that will save lives,” Germany’s ambassador to India, Walter J. Lindner, said as 120 ventilators arrived on Saturday.
“Out there, the hospitals are full. People are sometimes dying in front of the hospitals. They have no more oxygen. Sometimes (they are dying) in their cars.”
French ambassador Emmanuel Lenain said his country wanted to show solidarity with India.
“The epidemic is still going on in one country. The world won’t be safe until we are all safe. So it’s a matter of urgency,” he said yesterday following the delivery of eight oxygen-generation plants and dozens of ventilators from France.
Hospitals in the capital continued to issue SOS calls for oxygen on social media, with the latest appeal posted by a children’s hospital on Twitter yesterday.
The plea came a day after up to a dozen patients died at a hospital here amid an oxygen shortage, local media reported.
There are also growing fears about the surge of the virus in small cities, towns and rural regions, where health infrastructure is patchy and limited.
India on Saturday opened up its inoculation drive to all adults, but supplies are running low and only online enrolments are allowed for those aged under 45.
“It is a necessity now. We are seeing so many people testing positive,” data scientist Megha Srivastava, 35, said outside a vaccination centre here as she waited for her shot.
The head of the world’s largest vaccine maker, Serum Institute chief Adar Poonawalla, told The Times newspaper on Saturday during a business trip to Britain that he was being hounded by political and business leaders for more supplies.
“‘Threats’ is an understatement,” he told the paper.
“The level of expectation and aggression is really unprecedented. It’s overwhelming. Everyone feels he should get the vaccine.”
Alarm bells are also ringing in other countries in densely-populated South Asia.
“Infections have surged beyond the capacity of the health system,” Nepal’s Health Ministry said on Friday as it warned that hospital beds were running out.
On Saturday, the nation recorded 5,706 new cases, just shy of a pandemic high of 5,743 in October.
In Sri Lanka, daily infections hit a record 1,699 on Saturday, with authorities imposing curbs on movement and activities in parts of the island nation.
In London, the United Kingdom said it was sending an extra 1,000 oxygen ventilators to India, as a group of doctors staged its own intervention by offering long-distance telemedicine from Britain.
Britain has sent 495 oxygen concentrators and 200 ventilators to India, devastating and is shipping three larger production units, dubbed oxygen factories.