New Delhi | The number of COVID-19 cases in India since the start of the pandemic hovered around 20 million on Monday, as hospitals saturated and short of oxygen still struggled to save sick people, despite help from authorities and the government. foreign.
According to figures from the Ministry of Health on Monday, 370,000 new contaminations and 3,400 deaths have been recorded in the past 24 hours.
India has a total of 19.9 million cases of COVID and 219,000 deaths. A very high balance sheet, but per capita, it remains much lower than that of Brazil or the United States.
The country of 1.3 billion inhabitants, facing a second epidemic wave of great virulence, has identified eight million new infections since the end of March, according to official data that many specialists believe to be largely underestimated.
The health system, lacking in resources and unprepared for such a situation, is faced with serious shortages of places, medicines and oxygen.
According to press reports, 24 people died from lack of oxygen in a hospital in the southern state of Karnataka, near Bangalore, on Sunday night.
The district administration, however, denied that a shortage was the cause of these deaths.
On Saturday, twelve people died in a hospital that had exhausted its oxygen reserves in the capital New Delhi, according to local press.
Many hospitals are launching calls, especially on social networks, for emergency oxygen supplies.
A children’s clinic in Delhi has expressed alarm over its oxygen shortage, where some 25 to 30 sick newborns and children are at risk of dying, according to local press.
“Oxygen is fundamental for a hospital and the regular supply is not assured. We are constantly fighting against the worst, ”said Dr. Dinesh, director of Madhukar Rainbow Children’s Hospital, quoted by the Indian Express daily.
Federal and state authorities are scrambling to find oxygen to supply hospitals. Industry is involved, special rail convoys, “Oxygen Express”, ensure distribution.
Foreign aid has also poured in in recent days. Oxygen plants arrived from France on Sunday and respirators from Germany on Saturday.
The British government on Sunday announced plans to send a further 1,000 respirators to India, in addition to the oxygen concentrators and respirators already delivered.
Stepping up pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Supreme Court on Sunday ordered his government to provide Delhi with oxygen reserves before midnight (6.30 p.m. GMT) on Monday.