They rush from one hospital to another in Delhi. But more and more families of corona patients are getting the same response these days: “The beds are full and the oxygen bottles empty. We can’t help you.”
It creates harrowing scenes. An Indian journalist films people begging for a doctor for a critically ill relative. Help is not forthcoming, so the 35-year-old woman does not make it.
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It is the emergency that India has feared so much since the start of the corona crisis. The country is not prepared for an enormous amount of infections. The biggest problem? The lack of oxygen. The situation is so serious that hospitals are closing their doors to new patients.
Indian manufacturers produce as much as they can, but the demand is simply too great. With gasping patients at home, family members are doing everything they can to help. In addition, it is everyone for himself: there are even looted oxygen bottles.
Cries for help
Others try to get hold of a sparse bottle of oxygen with cries for help on social media. Also Aman Dhall placed a call on Twitter. “For my mother-in-law,” he says on the phone from a suburb of Delhi. “She got infected earlier this week and is having more and more trouble breathing.”
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Aman’s call yielded several tips. “I was able to arrange a transport of oxygen from Taiwan to here via the phone. But those bottles will not arrive until tomorrow night at the earliest. Hopefully that will be on time. We pray. In the meantime I keep looking.”
To support her breathing, his 64-year-old mother-in-law lies flat on her stomach at home. An advice from friends who have a medical background. “But she needs to get professional guidance from doctors quickly. Only they can save her.”
Self-isolation
Meanwhile, his mother-in-law has been kept awake for days. The fear is that if she falls asleep she may not wake up. “My wife and I spend all day texting and video calling with them. We can’t go there because of self-isolation. My father-in-law and brother-in-law also have symptoms of the virus.”
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Just like the rest of India, Aman has also been completely overcome by the second corona wave. “Three former colleagues of mine have died in the last 24 hours. People in their 30s, early 40s who would have survived if they could be helped. It’s a really difficult time. I’ve never felt so hopeless in my life. felt. “
Indian variant
After the first wave, India thought it had seen the worst. But the new resurgence of the coronavirus has been going on for weeks. According to experts, this is the result of a more contagious Indian variant. Normal life went on while the number of infections increased. As with a massively celebrated religious Hindu-festival.
Politicians also felt that the virus had been defeated. This is how Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, said last week a huge election rally. According to critics, a signal to the people that the virus would no longer be a threat. With an underestimate as a result.
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The impact the virus can have is now becoming painfully clear in many ways. Not only hospitals, but also crematoria are struggling with capacity problems. India has a long tradition of cremating the deceased in the open air.
Instead of an elaborate farewell ritual, the outdoor crematoriums mainly involve assembly line work. “Normally we burn 8 to 10 people in a day,” Jitender Singh Shunty told Reuters news agency. “Yesterday there were 78. The situation is very bad.”
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The boss of a crematorium in New Delhi had to expand due to the influx of deceased patients. “People are now also being cremated in the parking lots. And so many bodies are being added that even the wood for the cremations is running out.”
With tears in his eyes, he watches as one family after another say goodbye in tears. “If it continues like this, we will even have to use the road for cremations in a few days. There is simply nothing else to do.”
The vaccination campaign will also offer no solution in the near future. India produces the most vaccines in the world, but also exported many of them. The situation in the country is now about to change and the country will choose more for itself. At the moment, more than 8 percent of the inhabitants has had an injection.
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