“Oxygen Express” train to India: Medical supplies arrive, dead close to 200,000

The situation in India is dramatic, where today medical supplies began to arrive. Hospitals are flooded and people are forced to evacuate patients due to lack of beds and oxygen supplies.

At the same time, the outbreak these days of the youth epidemic coronavirus has increased the death toll from COVID-19, which is now approaching 200,000.

A shipment of medical supplies from Britain, including 100 respirators and 95 oxygen condensers, arrived in New Delhi early this morning, Reuters reported, with which it is working with Reuters.

France also sends oxygen generators, which can supply oxygen to 250 beds all year round, according to the embassy.

The first “Oxygen Express” train to New Delhi, carrying about 70 tonnes of this precious gas from the eastern state of Shatisgarh, also arrived early today in the Indian capital.

However, the crisis facing this city of 20 million inhabitants, which is the focus of the recent wave of the epidemic in the country, continues with undiminished intensity.

Dr. K. Pritham, head of medical administration at the New Delhi Spine Injury Treatment Center, noted that the lack of oxygen is a major concern.

“For seven days, most of us have not slept. “Due to the shortage, we are forced to put two patients on a ventilator and this is a time consuming process because we do not have long tubes,” he explained, as reported by Reuters and relayed by the Athens News Agency.

The last 24 hours h India recorded 323,144 new cases, slightly less than the world record of 352,991 new coronavirus cases recorded Monday, while COVID-19 deaths rose by 2,771 to 197,894.

Rizzo M. John, a professor and health economist at the Indian Institute of Management in the southern state of Kerala, said the decline in new cases was largely due to a reduction in the number of diagnostic tests performed.

“We should not take this as an indication of a reduction in cases, but rather as a lack of recording due to the excessive number of positive cases!” He said in a Twitter message.

“Deterioration before an improvement of the situation”

India has mobilized its armed forces to help deal with the catastrophic crisis. The chief of staff, General Bippin Rawat, said Monday that oxygen would be supplied from the reserves of the armed forces, while retired medical personnel would assist medical facilities struggling to cope with the crisis.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called on all citizens to be vaccinated and to be vigilant amid a “storm” of cases.

In some of India’s worst-hit cities, cremations are being carried out in makeshift facilities in parks and parking lots., while experts warn that the next crisis will be the lack of doctors and nurses.

“Unfortunately, beds do not treat patients – doctors, nurses and paramedics do,” said Dr. Devi Setty, heart surgeon and president of the Narayana Health hospital chain.

At the same time, the Indian Medical Association announced that private hospitals in the western city of Surat in the state of Gujarat should be closed if they do not receive oxygen supplies soon.

“All patients should be transferred (from private) to government hospitals. “We are afraid that there may be a problem of law and order,” the union said in a letter to Minister Vita Rupani.

Many local companies, including Tata Group, Reliance Industries Ltd and Jindal Steel and Power, have intervened to help supply medical oxygen.

The US Chamber of Commerce has warned that the Indian economy, the sixth largest in the world, could be shaken as a result of the outbreak, causing consequences for the global economy.

“We expect the situation to deteriorate before the situation improves,” Myron Brilliant, the chamber’s executive vice president, told Reuters.

Demand is higher than the supply of vaccines

India, a country of about 1.3 billion people, has so far recorded 17.64 million cases of the new coronavirus, but experts believe that number is significantly higher.

Demand for COVID-19 vaccines exceeds supplies in India as companies struggle to increase production, in part due to a shortage of raw materials and a fire at an AstraZeneca vaccine factory.

The worst-hit state of Maharashtra, home to the country’s financial capital, Mumbai, could suspend vaccinations for those aged 18 to 45 amid uncertainties about vaccine supplies, a government official said. .

India plans to open the vaccine to all its adults from 1 May.

The country is in talks with the United States, which has announced it will share 60 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines with other countries.

“Significant pressure is currently being exerted to secure as much as possible for India,” a senior Indian official involved in the ongoing talks told Reuters, adding that Monti had received assurances that India would be given priority.

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