Coronavirus: Indian doctors beg for help as crisis claims 117 lives an hour
- In addition to oxygen supplies running out, intensive care units are operating at full capacity and nearly all ventilators are in use
- Experts say the worst is still yet to come for India, which on Monday recorded more than 350,000 new Covid-19 cases, setting a new record for the fifth day
Dr Gautam Singh dreads the daily advent of the ventilator beeps, signalling that oxygen levels are critically low, and hearing his critically ill patients start gasping for air in the New Delhi emergency ward where he works.
On Sunday evening, when the oxygen supplies of other nearby hospitals were also near empty, the desperate 43-year-old took to social media, posting an impassioned video plea on Twitter.
“Please send oxygen to us,” he said with folded hands and a choked voice. “My patients are dying.”
The situation in India is tragic and likely to get worse for some weeks to months
India was initially seen as a success story in weathering the pandemic, but the virus is now racing through its massive population of nearly 1.4 billion, and systems are beginning to collapse.
SOS messages like the one Singh sent reveal the extent of panic in a country where infections are hitting new peaks daily.
