India’s insufficient transport capacity is the crux of the country’s “hypoxia”
According to the data released by the Ministry of Health of India today (30th), in the past 24 hours, the number of new confirmed cases of new crown in India in a single day hit a new high since the epidemic, reaching 386,000. There were more than 300,000 newly confirmed cases in a single day for 9 consecutive days. Due to the soaring number of confirmed cases, the situation of the epidemic has deteriorated rapidly, and medical resources are frequently urgent. Among them, medical oxygen has become the most important and most in short supply at present.
Mumbai doctor Troupti: We don’t have oxygen anymore. When have we encountered this kind of thing? It’s hard to imagine, can there be anything worse than it is now.
In New Delhi Outside the oxygen plant, a woman could not cry. On the morning of the 28th, due to his mother’s serious illness, Saha queued up here overnight to wait for oxygen. The oxygen did not arrive, but the sad news of his mother’s death came.
Sa Ha: I left at 2 o’clock at night, and there is no oxygen supply in Delhi. We rushed around for a long time, arrived here at three or four o’clock, and finally we lined up here. I said to save my mother first, and they told me to get a prescription from the doctor or the hospital. My mother is in critical condition. We have been to many hospitals to find beds in the past two days.
Some people are forced to go to the black market to buy oxygen for their loved ones.
Reporter: She How sick is it?
The patient’s family: If we don’t give her oxygen, she will die in the hospital. There is no oxygen in the hospital.
A family in New Delhi In the emergency room of the hospital, a woman sat weakly beside her husband’s bed. Her mother died of new coronary pneumonia. Her husband has also been diagnosed and is in a critical condition. At this moment, she has not been able to come out of the grief of her mother’s death.
The patient’s family Nika Goel: My mother passed away this morning because she didn’t have a ventilator. If anything, maybe she can still live. Now he (my husband) also needs ventilator support. The doctor said that we still have two days. I have tried my best and there is no way.
Intensive Care Unit Chief Doctor Sumit Rai: There are too many patients in our hospital now, and they are beyond the scope of the intensive care unit. We put a stretcher between the beds, our ventilators ran out, and we were using an anesthesia machine to provide oxygen to the patient.
Not only New Delhi In Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, rural areas and some small cities are also facing severe oxygen shortages. Many hospitals have posted notices suggesting that patients’ families coordinate medical oxygen by themselves. Outside the oxygen plant in rural India, there was a long queue of people carrying cylinders, but there was no oxygen here either.
Currently rural India Of oxygen production and filling facilities are overwhelmed by excessive demand. A large number of factories have stopped industrial oxygen production, focusing only on oxygenating medical oxygen cylinders, and are increasing transportation and supplies. Even so, oxygen is still in short supply.
Dick, the patient’s family Sitter: I have been waiting here for 48 hours. All these people who have been infected with their loved ones and are hospitalized are queuing up here hoping to get oxygen and save lives. The government said in the newspaper that there is oxygen, but the reality is not like this.
Patient Family Tower Hill: My sister died of hypoxia on April 23, and my brother’s condition was also very bad. Only those with high status and familiarity with the oxygen plant can get oxygen. We stood here for hours and no one answered.
Indian media: Insufficient transportation capacity has led to “hypoxia” throughout the country
The continuing deterioration of the epidemic has put India’s medical system on the verge of collapse, especially the severe “hypoxia”. Without oxygen, patients cannot survive for a few minutes, so why is medical oxygen in India “hard to find”? The Indian media pointed out that India is not without oxygen, but it is not easy to transport it to the hospital in time. Difficulty in transportation is the crux of India’s “hypoxia”.
《India Express “It pointed out that India actually has sufficient oxygen production capacity, but it has been dragged down by its “transportation capacity.”
India is the biggest Most of the oxygen-producing factories are located in the eastern region, while cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai, which are currently severely affected by the epidemic, are located in northern and western India and require long-distance transportation. The transportation of medical oxygen requires certain transportation and infrastructure support.
Medical liquid oxygen The transportation conditions are more stringent. First, a special tanker for transporting and storing liquid oxygen is needed. In India, the number of such special tankers is limited, and the deterioration of the new crown epidemic has caused an explosive increase in oxygen demand. India currently has only 1,224 vehicles that can transport liquid oxygen, with a total carrying capacity of more than 16,000 tons. At present, the daily demand is more than 7,000 tons. It seems that the transportation capacity is sufficient. However, it often takes 6 days for these vehicles to transport long-distance transportation. This means that the daily transportation capacity is less than 3,000 tons, which is far from meeting the oxygen demand.
In addition, charge Loading oxygen is also a time-consuming process. Oxygen tank trucks usually queue for several hours outside the oxygen plant, and it takes about two hours to fill a liquid oxygen tank. For safety reasons, the driving speed of the oxygen tanker cannot exceed 40 kilometers per hour, and it is usually necessary to avoid driving at night.