On April 20, one of the largest hospitals in New Delhi, India, announced that they had merely 3 hours worth of oxygen left for their 1,400 COVID-19 patients in critical condition. Many patients ran out of oxygen that night. Loved ones and friends were told to steal any oxygen cylinders they could find as a last resort. Crematoriums in New Delhi were unable to process the volume of COVID-19 fatalities like these, and thus many families sought instruction on how to preserve the dead bodies of their loved ones at home.
Aaroogya International Foundation hosted a forum on April 21 to discuss this crisis. The discussion was facilitated by Silicon Valley Global Health.
The two weeks prior to the April 21st meeting, COVID infections grew in Delhi from around 5,000 a day, to 30,000 a day, public health professional Dr. Dhruv Kacker said. Since this new strain had a short incubation period which could yield symptoms in just hours, the most thorough testing, which took at least 3-5 days to bear a result, had been made impotent in many cases; by the time tests generated results, patients were often in the final stages of the disease. Even if the tests were effective for diagnosing the new strain, Dr. Kacker pointed out that still, the rate of infection was too high for India’s health care infrastructure to administer enough tests quickly enough.
Social distancing is strenuous to instate considering India’s dense population, and lower-income communities often do not have the resources to take preventative measures like buying masks and sanitizers. Those who are at high risk but have lacking means to protect themselves or their loved ones are required to scramble desperately for any possible help.
Dr. Kacker spoke about the Indian oxygen cylinder transport being robbed on its way to a hospital, and Dr. Datta spoke about how vaccines are so scarce that wealthier citizens have spent thousands of dollars to obtain just one vaccine dose, while those of less means have resorted to injecting any steroid, medicine, or otherwise which could to any extent protect them from the new COVID tide.
If you are interested in viewing the event, please visit the link below:
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We also launched a campaign to raise money for masks, which will be distributed to those in India who cannot afford them. If you are interested in donating money to fund masks for $2 each, click the link below: