India COVID: Collapsing nation’s dark death penalty call as oxygen runs out

A high court has made a chilling death penalty order in a nation that is buckling under a devastating second wave of coronavirus.

India has vowed to “hang” anyone who delays the delivery of oxygen supplies as the country buckles under a devastating second wave of coronavirus.

A high court in New Delhi warned it would use the death penalty after brazen local officials intercepted and diverted oxygen tanks to desperate hospitals in their areas.

The court, which was hearing submissions by a group of hospitals over the oxygen shortages, described the devastating rise in infections as a “tsunami”.

Overnight, the city of 20 million people extended its lockdown, as the country’s COVID-19 crisis grew with infections and deaths hitting record highs.

Oxygen supplies are running low in many parts of the nation. Picture: Noah Seelam / AFP

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The healthcare system has struggled to cope with the huge surge, with reports of severe oxygen and medicine shortages and patients’ families pleading for help on social media.

India recorded 349,691 new cases and 2767 deaths in the past 24 hours – the highest since the start of the pandemic.

Devastating scenes are playing out at hospitals where patients are dying “within minutes” of arriving due to a lack of oxygen and beds, and some of them not even making it that far.

A disturbing video report from the BBC shows medical staff at one hospital in Delhi overnight frantically trying to save dying patients, as they roll in on stretchers in a constant procession.

“The frontline, the emergency room at a covid hospital, under the weight of an unfolding disaster”. @yogital, Fred Scott & Sanjay Ganguly ground report from #Delhi. WARNING this is very distressing pic.twitter.com/sCDxRwxx8L

— Nicola Careem (@NicolaCareem) April 23, 2021

As staff desperately try to perform CPR on a critical patient as they are wheeled through the crowded hospital, a look of exhaustion and disbelief can be seen on their faces as another patient, even more critically ill, comes in just seconds later.

Doctors told the network’s reporters there are next to no ICU beds left in the city of 20 million and, at the time of filming, oxygen supplies had almost run out.

“Almost every hospital is on the edge. If oxygen runs out, there is no leeway for many patients,” Dr Sumit Ray, a doctor from Delhi, told the network.

“Within minutes, they will die. You can see these patients – they’re on ventilators, they require high-flow oxygen. If the oxygen stops, most of them will die.”

India hit by a COVID ‘storm’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a monthly radio address Sunday that India had been shaken by a “storm” as he called on people to get vaccinated and not “get swayed by any rumour about the vaccines”.

The country has administered almost 141 million vaccine shots so far, but experts say the mass inoculation programme needs to be significantly stepped up in the nation of 1.3 billion people.

There has been growing criticism of Modi’s government over allegations it was caught underprepared ahead of the surge.

On Sunday, Twitter confirmed it withheld dozens of tweets critical of the crisis after a legal demand from New Delhi.

“If (the content) is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only,” the social media giant said in a statement.

Some tweets included comments, including from regional opposition lawmakers, about the overwhelmed healthcare system.

The IT ministry told AFP it asked Twitter to remove 100 posts, adding that there was “the misuse of social media platforms by certain users to spread fake or misleading information and create panic about the Covid-19 situation in India”.

The world rallies around India

Shocking stories of patients dying outside hospitals have spurred promises of support from the international community.

The White House said Sunday that the United States would “immediately” make supplies of vaccine-production material, as well as therapeutics, tests, ventilators and protective equipment, available to India.

European nations including Britain, France and Germany have also pledged help. Arch-foe Pakistan offered medical equipment and supplies after Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted prayers for a “speedy recovery”.

RELATED: India reaches world record for daily COVID-19 cases

A partially deserted road is seen during the Sunday lockdown imposed as a preventive measure against the spread of the coronavirus in Chennai. Picture: Arun Sankar / AFP

Other countries imposed travel restrictions. Thailand on Sunday became the latest country to bar foreigners departing India from entering.

Neighbouring Bangladesh, which shares a 4,000-kilometre (2,500-mile) border with India, will halt land crossings for two weeks from Monday, Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen told AFP on Sunday.

Oxygen running out in some cities

The Indian Express reported Sunday that Vinod K. Paul, a member of government advisory body NITI Aayog, warned in a presentation to the prime minister and state leaders Friday that daily cases could rise to as high as half a million by mid-May.

Some states and territories have imposed curbs on movement and activities, with Indian-administered Kashmir on Saturday announcing a weekend lockdown.

Ambulance sirens echoed through empty streets in the northern city of Lucknow in India’s most populous state, badly hit Uttar Pradesh, during its weekend lockdown.

Workers arrange medical oxygen cylinders to be transported to hospitals. Picture: Arun Sankar / AFP

“No one’s answering... calls. Where do I take the patient to?,” Abhishek Gaurav, 40, told AFP as he searched for a hospital bed for his friend in Lucknow. His pleas were echoed by others.

In Delhi, there were chaotic scenes outside some hospitals.

“He was gasping for air, we removed his face mask and he was crying and saying ‘save me, please save me’,” Mohan Sharma, 17, said of his father, who died outside a northeast Delhi hospital.

“But I could do nothing. I just watched him die,” Sharma told AFP. The government said Sunday that more than 500 oxygen-generation plants were to be set up in hospitals. Oxygen supplies were also being bolstered through special trains and airlifts of containers from other countries.

— with AFP