
India's capital New Delhi has been reporting acute shortage in oxygen supplies for days as as hospitals and health care infrastructure buckles under a sweeping second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. A Delhi doctor says the situation is "quite bad" due to a "surplus of patients."
"There is quite a big influx of patients from not just nearby areas but from other states as well. That's why it's just overwhelming," said Dr. Abhinav Guliani of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi. "It's the same state everywhere. There is a shortage of medical beds and there's a shortage of medical supplies — not because it's not there in plenty. It's because the sheer number of patients is just too much."
Guliani, a pulmonologist, also explained that his hospital is about to run out of oxygen supply this weekend because "the requirement has more than doubled."
"Many hospitals do not have oxygen plants. So they have to get oxygen. So [the government] is rerouting the industrial oxygen and getting it to us but it does take a few days. So it should be there," he told CNN.
However, there are Covid-19-positive patients who are staying at home instead of admitting themselves into a hospital and they may find it hard to get an oxygen cylinder because of the spike in demand at hospitals, Dr. Guliani said.
These patients do not want to go to the hospitals because they are afraid and because emergency rooms are full right now, he added.
Watch the interview: