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A30 world news
Diaranson 21 aPriL 2021

No place for you': Indian hospitals buckle amid virus surge

creating micro-containment zones to
control outbreaks instead. Laboratories were unprepared for the
steep rise in demand for testing that
New Delhi, the capital, is rushing to came with the current surge, and ev-
convert schools into hospitals. Field eryone was “caught with their pants
hospitals in hard-hit cities that had down,” said A. Velumani, the chair-
been abandoned are being resusci- man and managing director of Thy-
tated. India is trying to import oxy- rocare, one of India's largest private
gen and has started to divert oxygen testing labs. He said the current de-
supplies from industry to the health mand was three times that of last year.
system.
India's massive vaccination drive is
It remains to be seen whether these also struggling. Several states have
frantic efforts will be enough. New flagged shortages, although the feder-
Delhi's government-run Sanjay Gan- al government has claimed there are
dhi Hospital is increasing its beds enough stocks.
for COVID-19 patients from 46 to
160. But R. Meneka, the official co- India said last week that it would al-
ordinating the COVID-19 response low the use of all COVID-19 shots
at the hospital, said he wasn't sure if that have been greenlit by the World
the facility had the capacity to provide Health Organization or regulators in
(AP) — Seema Gandotra, sick tagious variants, including one first oxygen to that many beds. the United States, Europe, Britain or
with the coronavirus, gasped for detected in India. More than a year Japan. On Monday, it said it would
breath in an ambulance for 10 into the pandemic, global deaths The government-run hospital at Bu- soon expand vaccinations to include
hours as it tried unsuccessfully to have passed 3 million and are climb- rari, an industrial hub in the capitals' every adult in the country, an esti-
find an open bed at six hospitals ing again, running at nearly 12,000 outskirts, only had oxygen for two mated 900 million people. But with
in India's sprawling capital. By per day on average. At the same time, days Monday, and found that most vaccines in short global supply, it isn't
the time she was admitted, it was vaccination campaigns have seen set- vendors in the city had run out, said clear when Indian vaccine makers
too late, and the 51-year-old died backs in many places — and India's Ramesh Verma, who coordinates the will have the capacity to meet these
hours later. surge has only exacerbated that: The COVID-19 response there. goals. Indian vaccine maker Bharat
country is a major vaccine producer Biotech said it was scaling up to make
Rajiv Tiwari, whose oxygen levels be- but was forced to delay deliveries of “Every minute, we keep getting hun- 700 million doses each year.
gan falling after he tested positive for shots to focus on its domestic de- dreds of calls for beds,” he said.
the virus, has the opposite problem: mand. Meanwhile, Shahid Malik, who
He identified an open bed, but the Kamla Devi, a 71-year-old diabetic, works at a small supplier of oxygen,
resident of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh Bhramar Mukherjee, a biostatistician was rushed to a hospital in New Del- said the demand for medical oxygen
can't get to it. “There is no ambulance at the University of Michigan who hi when her blood sugar levels fell last had increased by a factor of 10. His
to take me to the hospital,” he said. has been tracking India’s pandemic, week. On returning home, her levels phone has been ringing continuously
said India failed to learn from surges plummeted again but this time, there for two days. By Monday, the shop
Such tragedies are familiar from elsewhere and take anticipatory mea- were no beds. She died before she still had oxygen but no cylinders.
surges in other parts of the world sures. could be tested for the virus. “If you
— but were largely unknown in In- have corona(virus) or if you don't, it He answered each call with the same
dia, which was able to prevent a col- When new infections started dipping doesn't matter. The hospitals have no message: “If you have your own cyl-
lapse in its health system last year in September, authorities thought place for you,” said Dharmendra Ku- inder, come pick up the oxygen. If
through a harsh lockdown. But now the worst of the pandemic was over. mar, her son. you don’t, we can’t help you.”
they are everyday occurrences in the Health Minister Harsh Vardhan even
vast country, which is seeing its larg- declared in March that the country
est surge of the pandemic so far and had entered the “endgame” — but
watching its chronically underfunded he was already behind the curve: Av-
health system crumble. erage weekly cases in Maharashtra
state, home to the financial capital of
Tests are delayed. Medical oxygen Mumbai, had tripled in the previous
is scarce. Hospitals are understaffed month.
and overflowing. Intensive care units
are full. Nearly all ventilators are in Mukherjee was among those who
use, and the dead are piling up at cre- had urged authorities to take advan-
matoriums and graveyards. India re- tage of cases being low earlier in the
corded over 250,000 new infections year to speed up vaccinations. In-
and over 1,700 deaths in the past 24 stead, officials dithered in limiting
hours alone, and the U.K. announced huge gatherings during Hindu fes-
a travel ban on most visitors from the tivals and refused to delay ongoing
country this week. Overall, India has elections in the eastern West Bengal
reported more than 15 million cases state, where experts fear that large,
and some 180,000 deaths — and ex- unmasked crowds at rallies will fuel
perts say these numbers are likely un- the spread of the virus.
dercounted.
Now India's two largest cities have
“The surge in infections has come imposed strict lockdowns, the pain
like a storm and a big battle lies of which will fall inordinately on the
ahead,” Prime Minister Narendra poor. Many have already left major
Modi said in an address to the nation cities, fearing a repeat of last year,
Tuesday night. when an abrupt lockdown cost mil-
lions of migrant workers their jobs
India's wave of cases is contribut- in cities and forced many to walk to
ing to a worldwide rise in infections their home villages or risk starvation.
as many places experience deepen-
ing crises, such as Brazil and France, In his speech, Prime Minister Modi
spurred in part by new, more con- urged states to avoid lockdowns by