*Trigger Warning: Covid-19*
Covid-19, being the most fragile disease of all times, has led to countless deaths in 2020 and getting even more threatening in the following year, 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic turned the world upside down. The disease has put doctors in a dilemma — who haven’t seen such a deadly incident in their entire professional life.
Moreover, in 2021 India remains the only country to get affected brutally. India has been logging global daily records of over 3,00,000 cases for the last five days. The country saw 3,52,991 new infections and 2,812 COVID-related deaths in the past 24 hours. Altogether, 1,95,123 people have died, while 17.3 million people have been infected with the virus in India.
What landed India in this ugly Mess?
- The answer here is a collective failure. The centre has failed to reach the fast-emerging second wave.
- In the impending crisis, no red flags were given to alert the people.
- The centre failed to implement the lessons learned from the first wave for the known possibility of the second wave.
- Failure to preempt shortage of vaccine for our own population.
This is where the Indian government faced criticism for not prioritising its own population.
Likewise, India also faced a drastic decline in medical equipment. The few most effective equipment falling short of are oxygen cylinders, ventilators, oxygen concentrators and beds. We need immediately dispense these appliances for action to happen immediately to improve the situations.
Oxygen is a crucial treatment for many patients with severe Covid-19 since the disease affects lung function. One of the tell-tale symptoms is shortness of breath, which can be followed by pneumonia as the lungs fill with fluid.
Why are hospitals running out of Oxygen?
- Oxygen isn’t really easy to move. Tanks of compressed gases will solely go on roads or trains and can’t be flown on planes (Oxygen concentrators, on the other hand, that suck oxygen out of the air to realise a high concentration can be safely fly.)
- Now, these tanks ought to travel farther than ever before to stay up with billowing demand within the states in the north and west India that don’t have any production capacity.
- Another bottleneck for obtaining oxygen wherever it’s required is the cryogenic tanks that hold compressed oxygen that can’t be factory-made quickly.
- One of the country’s largest medical chemical element corporations says the explanation for the shortage isn’t offer; it’s obtaining oxygen wherever it’s required. “Just the means the pandemic has hit us once in a very a hundred years, similarly, no one expected the necessity for oxygen to manoeuvre such massive distances to happen.”
The vast majority of the factories that manufacture oxygen in India are settled in the eastern part of the country — more than one thousand miles from major cities like New Delhi and Mumbai.
Officially, India’s daily oxygen production capability is 7,127 MT and its medical O demand has enlarged by 76% in 10 days — from 3,842 MT on 12 April to 6,785 MT on 22 April. On paper, that leaves the country with some hundred metric tons still to spare. However, state after state has complained of acute shortage.
Supply chain: Until 2019, before the pandemic hit the country, India needed simply 750–800 MT liquid medical oxygen (LMO); the remaining was for industrial use. Since 18 April this year, industrial offer has been utterly disrupted.
Hoarding and price rise: A small 100-litre cylinder costs ₹8,000 and on top of up to ₹4,500–5,000, and its replenishment value has come up from ₹150–250 to ₹500–800 in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and alternative cities. In Tier-II and Tier-III cities, replenishment prices vary from ₹400 to ₹600.
Exploring alternative avenues, India is tapping into all resources. With supply to industries cut since 18 April, oxygen produced in iron and steel plants being entertained for medical use, and industrial oxygen manufacturers being inspired to supply oxygen. With these measures, the government claims to raise LMO capability by 3,300 MT.
Doctors have risen to challenge and amid the storming numbers. The National Clinical Covid-19 register has known a key information point: 54.5 % or one out of 2 individuals admitted in hospitals want element support throughout treatment this time. This can be a 13.4 % increase from last year’s peak throughout September and October, in step with information from 40 centres across the country.
What about the use of oxygen concentrators? Atmospheric air has 21% of oxygen. Inflamed lungs are able to filter little or no amount of oxygen. If we tend to provide 4–5 litre per minute oxygen medical care to somebody with 85–90 saturation, the chemical element saturation improves by 26–28%.
If we tend to increase oxygen supply to 15 litres, saturation rises to 90%. Direct offer of pure chemical element puts less pressure on the alveoli; however, the dose will scar respiratory organ tissues.
How companies have stepped Forward
- Tata Group and Reliance Industries Limited are two of the largest firms that have pledged to support the government’s effort to extend the assembly and provide medical oxygen or liquid oxygen.
- Jindal Steel and Power has committed to supply 500 metric tons of oxygen and is actively dispatching it to needy hospitals.
- Meanwhile, corporative fertiliser major IFFCO aforementioned on Monday that it would set up four Oxygen plants at a value of roughly ₹30 crores within the next 15 days. The oxygen plants are started in the province, Gujarat and Odisha. The plants are placed up at Kalol (Gujarat), Aonla and Phulpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Paradeep (Odisha).
Providing food, drugs and hygiene kits: NGOs are responding to the present pandemic, supporting health centres, raising awareness concerning the way to forestall outbreak and providing essentials starting from medicine and hygiene kits to PPE.
Maintaining critical health systems: We are adapting existing programmes to confirm essential health services are maintaining throughout full or partial lockdown. They have a tendency to operate with partners to mitigate the secondary impact of Covid-19 in areas like maternal and kid health, sexual and fruitful health, gender-based violence and non-communicable diseases like TB and malaria: building post-crisis recovery into their emergency response.
Spreading information and health messaging: Besides providing relevant data to street-living communities through “speaker boxes”, they are frequently feeding many vulnerable families and providing soap and face masks.
Supporting women and young people: Remote communities are being reached through existing relationships with native authorities and native women leaders are answerable for community awareness-raising by sharing key messages via megaphone alongside the utilisation of radio broadcasts, mobile hotspots and social networks.
Getting funds and emergency relief to vulnerable communities: NGOs have made efforts to line up an emergency response fund to supply immediate small-scale funding to frontline partners to produce life-saving help to extremely vulnerable communities in India, Nepal, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Asian nations and Brazil.
In a state of crisis, India wants as much help as it can get. And once continuing spread means that the next likelihood of vital mutations arising too. Serving India isn’t simply a significant humanitarian decision, it’s one of the simplest ways to beat COVID-19 for good.