Delhi running out of medical oxygen

Virus ‘storm’ overwhelming the country, Modi says

Authorities in Delhi said the Indian capital’s hospitals would start running out of medical oxygen by today as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country faced a coronavirus “storm” overwhelming its health system.

Modi said the government was working with local authorities nationwide to ensure adequate supplies of hospital beds, oxygen and anti-viral drugs.

“The situation was manageable until a few weeks ago. The second wave of infections has come like a storm,” he said in a televised address to the nation, urging citizens to stay indoors and not panic amid India’s worst health emergency in memory.

More states tighten curbs

“While we are making all efforts to save lives, we are also trying to ensure livelihood and economic activity is less impacted,” Modi said, urging state governments to use lockdowns only as a last resort. Maharashtra state, the epicentre of the recent surge and home to financial capital Mumbai, yesterday further tightened restrictions on grocery shops and home deliveries.

Uttar Pradesh yesterday announced a weekend lockdown, whilst Telangana in the south became the latest to impose a night curfew.

India’s surging epidemic has forced both its financial and political capitals into lockdown, spurring a fresh exodus of migrant labourers fleeing the cities fearing vanishing jobs as panic rises over the ferocity of the country’s second Covid-19 wave.

The nation now has the world’s fastest-growing Covid-19 caseload, adding 259,170 new infections and 1,761 deaths yesterday, leaving it behind only the US in terms of total numbers. As virus numbers have soared more state government have announced localised shutdowns.

Strained health care system

On Monday New Delhi announced a six-day curfew after it reported more than 24,000 daily infections. The city is out of hospital beds, medical oxygen and drugs being used to treat the most critically ill patients. Hours after the announcement, reports began emerging of thousands of the city’s poorest workers converging at the interstate bus terminals.

At Anand Vihar bus terminal, Sandeep Rai, a 30-year-old driver, was one of the thousands trying to leave the city yesterday. He was trying to make his way home to his village in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh. “I have just 100 rupees ($1.34) left with me, and I don’t know how long this lockdown is going to last,” Rai said. “The landlord wants rent, there are power bills to paid, where is the money? It is true the government did ask us stay back, but can you trust the government? I can’t.”

The images were reminiscent of India’s first strict lockdown in late March last year where hundreds of thousands of workers fled cities as their daily wages dried up with just a few hours of notice. Many of these people have only just returned to the cities as the economy slowly began to pick up, only to be crushed again by this second wave.

‘Don’t leave Delhi’

The exodus from the cities comprises migrants from villages and small towns who keep urban India moving while making less than $2 a day — construction workers, handymen, food sellers, truck drivers and household help.

“Last year when there was a lockdown we saw migrant labour leaving the city,” Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. “I want to especially appeal to them with folded hands — this is a small lockdown. Only six days. Don’t leave Delhi. I want to reassure you the government will take care of you.”

Maharashtra, India’s wealthiest and most industrialised state, has seen migrant labourers leave the city since authorities issued work-from-home orders early this month. This despite the government saying it will spend 54 billion rupees ($716 million) to support its vulnerable citizens.

Mumbai alone has more than eight million migrants from other areas of the country, according to the 2011 census, most of whom work in the informal sector as rickshaw drivers or food-cart vendors and an enforced lockdown risks robbing them of weeks of pay.

“I can’t protect your livelihoods right now but I will ensure you won’t be hungry,” chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said in a televised address.

Vulnerable labour

While the labour migration this time around may not be as bad as last year, when the entire country was under strict lockdown “the vulnerability in labour market still persists,” said NR Bhanumurthy, vice chancellor of Bengaluru Dr. B.R. Ambedkar School of Economics University. “Because of lack of robust recovery from last year’s slowdown, ultimate effect is felt on labour market. Public policy needs to refocus on that.”

As more cities and states have issued stay-at-home order or other movement restrictions job losses have begun to tick up. Urban unemployment jumped to 10.72 per cent for the week ending April 18 from 7.21 per cent two weeks ago, according to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt. Ltd.