Coronavirus storm has shaken India, says Narendra Modi as hospitals run out of oxygen

Narendra Modi battles criticism over his handling of the pandemic as India records a world record for infections for a fourth day.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Picture: AFP.

The COVID-19 crisis is a storm that has shaken the nation, India’s prime minister has admitted as his government battles bitter criticism of its handling of the pandemic and Delhi hospitals face critical oxygen shortages after another day of record infections.

India registered a world record for COVID-19 infections for the fourth day in a row with 349,691 new cases and 2,767 deaths. Its total caseload is nearing 17 million and experts predict that the second wave now ravaging the country could top 500,000 infections a day before it peaks.

Hospitals in Delhi and other cities, overwhelmed by the surge of patients in recent days, continued to report crippling shortages of oxygen and beds and pleaded with the government to increase supplies. At the Jaipur Golden Hospital in the capital another 25 patients died on Friday night when oxygen supplies ran out.

Narendra Modi, the prime minister, has been condemned for the failure to prepare for a second wave, instead encouraging huge political and religious gatherings earlier in the year when cases dropped below 10,000 a day. “We were confident, our spirits were up after successfully tackling the first wave, but this storm has shaken the nation,” he admitted in his monthly radio address to the nation yesterday.

He went on, however, to warn Indians “not to fall prey to misinformation”, reflecting his government’s determination to deflect blame for the disaster. Acting on a government order Twitter removed more than fifty posts attacking India’s response that officials claimed were “fake news … to misinform and create panic among the people”. Taking an even tougher line, the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh state, governed by the radical Hindu cleric Yogi Adityanath, threatened to seize the property of anyone who spread “rumours” of oxygen shortages.

“There is no shortage of oxygen in any Covid hospital [in the state], be it private or government,” Mr Adityanath said on Saturday, despite reports of dwindling supplies, including at a hospital in his own constituency. The government has deployed the air force to fly spare oxygen tanks to Delhi from across India and abroad, including Singapore, which offered four containers.

The unprecedented scale of the Indian crisis, and the threat it poses to global efforts to curb the pandemic, have prompted an outpouring of international pledges of aid. Even China and the old enemy Pakistan offered assistance: another public relations blow for Mr Modi, who had vowed to build a “self-reliant India”.

The US, under pressure to release millions of stockpiled doses of COVID-19 vaccine to India and other hard-hit nations, promised swift action.

Amid the political posturing, the appeals for oxygen from Delhi hospitals continued throughout the weekend. Madhu Handa, medical director of Moolchand Hospital, broke down on television as she spoke of how the facility and her staff were at breaking point; the lives of scores of Covid patients in the balance. “We are down to around 30 minutes of oxygen,” she told the local broadcaster NDTV. “We have retained all our night staff, called in additional people just so we ensure that we save as many lives as possible. We hope the supply comes in time. This is a never-ending thing. It happens every day.”

The Times