What is the medical oxygen shortage in India all about?
Medical oxygen in India has been in severe shortage as the country grapples with a deadly second wave of the pandemic. But bureaucratic hurdles are delaying delivery of the critical resource to those in need.
Why is India’s oxygen supply perilously low in the pandemic?
India’s Oxygen Supply Is Perilously Low In The Pandemic : Goats and Soda Hospitals don’t have enough oxygen for patients on ventilators. There are delivery bottlenecks. Families are sometimes told to get their own supplies.
Why is India calling death from lack of oxygen a genocide?
In this case, people waiting outside hospitals are dying for oxygen, and this is perhaps why some in India are calling death from lack of oxygen a genocide. The shortage of oxygen in India is not an unusual event.
Where is India getting its oxygen from?
The head of one of India’s biggest oxygen suppliers has said part of the struggle has been getting oxygen from eastern India, where supply in industrial states such as Orissa and Jharkhand is high, to western or northern India such as Maharashtra or Delhi, where cases are rising fast.
Why is Delhi’s Oxygen Supply Rationing?
In Delhi, which has been allocated 490 MT of oxygen, the state is rationing its supply by allocating each hospital with a fixed amount. Despite this, the city has continued to see SOS calls from hospitals because these allocations have been inadequate.
Is the Indian health infrastructure unawares from the current surge in infections?
However, despite this information, the present surge in infections seems to have caught the Indian health infrastructure unawares. Almost all states, particularly in north India, are struggling with the supply of medical oxygen. ThePrint explains how oxygen is distributed to hospitals and the reasons behind the supply shortage.
How much oxygen does India produce?
Experts say India is producing enough oxygen, at just over 7,000 tons a day. Most is for industrial use but can be diverted for medical purposes. The Indian government has now directed most of the country’s supply of industrially produced oxygen toward the health care system.
What happened to India’s oxygen tankers?
Government data show India has 1,172 oxygen cryogenic tankers for road transport. The tankers served the purpose well until before the pandemic, but now they are scarce and take painfully long to cover hundreds of kilometres.
How can India speed up oxygen delivery to its cities?
India is converting tankers for nitrogen and argon into oxygen-carrying vehicles. It’s also importing tankers, manufacturing new ones, and using the Air Force to airlift empty ones to speed up one-way travel. To speed up oxygen delivery, trains have also been pressed into service to ferry tankers.
How much liquid medical oxygen does India need?
Until 2019, before the pandemic hit the country, India required just 750-800 MT liquid medical oxygen (LMO), the rest was for industrial use. Since April 18 this year, industrial supply has been completely disrupted.
How much would it cost to solve the world’s oxygen shortage?
The World Health Organization said in February that $1.6 billion would be needed to remedy the oxygen shortage for a year; now that estimate is up to $6.5 billion. Efforts to raise that money have faltered, though it is a small fraction of what has been spent on vaccines and financial support for businesses and workers.
Is Delhi not getting enough oxygen from federal government?
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has repeatedly said that the city was not getting enough oxygen from the federal government, which allocates oxygen quotas to states. Federal officials say there is no shortage of oxygen, but that the challenge has come from transportation. Delhi’s high court on Saturday said “enough is enough”.
How much oxygen do we need in India?
In the last two months, the unmet, global need for medical oxygen has more than tripled, from less than 9 million cubic meters a day to more than 28 million, according to a coalition of aid groups that are tracking the crisis. About half of that unmet need is in India.