NEW DELHI – More government hospital beds will be freed for Covid-19 patients, India’s Health Ministry said yesterday, as the vast nation grapples with a worsening virus crisis and states appealed for additional supplies of oxygen and treatment drugs.
The country of 1.3 billion people added a record high of 261,500 new cases yesterday, with one in six people who underwent tests returning positive results, the ministry said.
India is the world’s second most-infected nation with almost 14.8 million cases.
Hospitals usually reserved for employees of ministries or public sector companies should convert some of their wards into Covid-19 facilities equipped with ICUs and oxygen-supported beds, ventilators, laboratories and healthcare staff, the government said.
“This will go a long way to address the shortage of beds being reported in some states,” the ministry added.
Special trains will transport oxygen tankers to needy states, while the government said oxygen use for industrial purposes would be limited.
In the capital New Delhi – the worst-hit city in India – 25,500 infections were reported in the past 24 hours.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted late yesterday that there is an “acute shortage of oxygen”, adding in capital letters that “oxygen has become an emergency” in the megapolis.
“The cases are rising very fast... only 100 beds left,” Kejriwal said earlier yesterday in a video statement.
Kejriwal said additional beds would be set up at some schools and a sport complex.
His government added that millions of pilgrims who attended an ongoing religious festival – the Kumbh Mela – have to quarantine for two weeks if they return to Delhi.
Nearly 3,700 people have tested positive in the past week in the city of Haridwar, Uttarakhand, which lies along the Ganges river where the Kumbh Mela is being observed, the state government said.
Health experts have warned the festival could become a “super-spreader” event.
In West Bengal, where an election is being held over several phases and with rival parties holding huge rallies – sparking further super-spreader fears – Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appealed for more oxygen and coronavirus medicines such as Remdesivir.
Banerjee added that her state needs more vaccines to tackle the outbreak. India has administered more than 122 million jabs so far, but some states have complained of low stocks and experts have said that the roll-out needs to be sped up.
Both Banerjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party held large election campaigns yesterday.
Rahul Gandhi, leader of Indian National Congress party, a small player in the West Bengal polls, tweeted yesterday that he was suspending all his rallies in the state “in view of the covid (sic) situation”.
In neighbouring Bangladesh, officials said the country recorded its highest-ever daily deaths – 102 – since the start of the pandemic, taking the overall toll to 10,385.
A makeshift 1,000-bed hospital – the biggest virus facility in the nation – that was built in place of a wholesale market was opened yesterday to ease pressure on the overburdened healthcare system.
Bangladesh, which is under a strict nationwide lockdown amid a spike in cases, has recorded 718,950 infections so far. – AFP, April 19, 2021
