India has vowed to “hang” anyone who delays the delivery of oxygen supplies as the country buckles under a devastating second wave of coronavirus.
A high court in New Delhi warned it would use the death penalty after brazen local officials intercepted and diverted oxygen tanks to desperate hospitals in their areas.
The court, which was hearing submissions by a group of hospitals over the oxygen shortages, described the devastating rise in infections as a “tsunami”.
Overnight, the city of 20 million people extended its lockdown, as the country’s COVID-19 crisis grew with infections and deaths hitting record highs.
Oxygen supplies are running low in many parts of the nation. Picture: Sajjad Hussain / AFP
The healthcare system has struggled to cope with the huge surge, with reports of severe oxygen and medicine shortages and patients’ families pleading for help on social media.
India recorded 349,691 new cases and 2767 deaths in the past 24 hours – the highest since the start of the pandemic.
Devastating scenes are playing out at hospitals where patients are dying “within minutes” of arriving due to a lack of oxygen and beds, and some of them not even making it that far.
A disturbing video report from the BBC shows medical staff at one hospital in Delhi overnight frantically trying to save dying patients, as they roll in on stretchers in a constant procession.
“The frontline, the emergency room at a covid hospital, under the weight of an unfolding disaster”. @yogital, Fred Scott & Sanjay Ganguly ground report from #Delhi. WARNING this is very distressing pic.twitter.com/sCDxRwxx8L
— Nicola Careem (@NicolaCareem) April 23, 2021
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As staff desperately try to perform CPR on a critical patient as they are wheeled through the crowded hospital, a look of exhaustion and disbelief can be seen on their faces as another patient, even more critically ill, comes in just seconds later.
Doctors told the network’s reporters there are next to no ICU beds left in the city of 20 million and, at the time of filming, oxygen supplies had almost run out.
“Almost every hospital is on the edge. If oxygen runs out, there is no leeway for many patients,” Dr Sumit Ray, a doctor from Delhi, told the network.
“Within minutes, they will die. You can see these patients – they’re on ventilators, they require high-flow oxygen. If the oxygen stops, most of them will die.”