The COVID Crisis in India

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: What is the situation at your hospital? I know it’s a private hospital and you have a lot of beds, but how desperate for you is the lack of oxygen?

DR. YATIN MEHTA, THE MEDICITY: See, we were not so bad, in the sense that, two days back, we had to cancel the routine operating list, which has substantially come down, because we were told in the morning that there was some problem with the supply. So far, we are OK, with the 200-plus — 250 patients which we have of COVID, and more than 120 in the intensive care. But the smaller hospitals and some of the hospitals in New Delhi have had a very rough time with the supply of oxygen, although it is getting a bit better. But, still, the smaller hospitals, say 50 bedded hospitals, we call them nursing homes in India, are having major crisis with the supply of oxygen. And, also, there is a problem with the domiciliary supply of oxygen. So people who are on oxygen support at home are finding it very difficult to get replenishment for their supplies.

AMANPOUR: I mean, Doctor, you just heard in our report from Anna Coren the doctor there saying that, if you die in India today, it’s because you don’t have oxygen. Isn’t that just like a basic thing? How come there are such limited supplies? And is the government’s pledge to build more concentrators and more supplies, do you think that’s working? Do you think that’s realistic?

MEHTA: No, I think it is — it is working to a bit. I mean, they have opened green corridors. They have opened oxygen extra strains, which are — the manufacturer of the supply — the making of oxygen was not an issue. The supply or the transit was an issue. So, some of the states who have been given adequate oxygen are not able to take it within the interior of their hospitals, because they do not have the containers which are appropriate for oxygen transport. So, these things have been handled not very well, I would say. Things will get better. But it could have been done much better.