Why did India fall into an ‘oxygen crisis’ amid the second wave of Covid-19?

The second outbreak of Covid-19 plague the Indian health system in chaos.
One of the most urgent problems when the number of hospitalizations for Covid-19 increases day by day is the shortage of medical oxygen to treat critically ill patients.

Empty oxygen tanks were transported to production plants by Indian Air Force C-17 and IL-76 transports. (Photo: ANI) By all means, day and night, the Government of India is working hard to produce and transport as much medical oxygen as possible to areas severely affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, including the capital New Delhi and the states in the West and South. The country’s Supreme Court even allowed the operation of a copper production complex in the state of Tamil Nadu, which has been suspended, only for the purpose of bringing back an industrial oxygen production plant located there. production to meet current urgent needs. However, severe shortages and even depletion of oxygen still occur in hotspots of disease. So the reason is why? A cargo train transports liquid oxygen vehicles from Visakhapatnam city, Andhra Pradesh state to Maharashtra state – India’s largest Covid-19 epidemic zone. (Photo: ANI) Hospital has depleted medical oxygen? The current emergency scarcity is not that Indian hospitals have run out of oxygen. Is that oxygen being delivered to these locations in time? The delay in delivering this product originated from the location of the manufacturing plant. In the capital New Delhi, for example, over the past week, many hospitals that do not have the capacity to meet their own medical oxygen needs have struggled to find emergency supplies. However, at the same time, the epidemic situation in neighboring New Delhi such as Uttar Pradesh and Haryana also progressed too badly. local demand in advance. As a result, hospitals in New Delhi have to place orders from factories further away in industrial zones in eastern India. Oxygen storage tanks in a hospital warehouse in New Delhi. (Photo: ANI) New problem arises again Industrial oxygen production plants serving the Indian capital are located in seven different states. Some factories are more than 1,000 kilometers from New Delhi. Due to the flammable nature of this material, all liquefied oxygen shipments must be transported in special storage tanks, with detailed shipping plans to ensure on-time delivery. And over the past few days, when the demand for medical oxygen in India has peaked, localities have acted to make it difficult to transport oxygen to meet the local demand first. Because of these moves, New Delhi received only 177 tons of pure oxygen on April 21, instead of 378 tons as allocated. However, some local sources claim that hospitals in New Delhi have made it difficult for themselves to order goods without taking into account the time it takes to transport oxygen across many states by road. “The problem did not arise if they calculated and ordered from 2-3 weeks ago.” This source told the Economic Times. The New Delhi government also did not respond to questions about the planning. A Covid-19 patient had to breathe oxygen while waiting to be placed in a hospital bed at LNJP Hospital, New Delhi. (Photo: ANI) India has enough capacity to produce oxygen for medical purposes India’s daily oxygen production capacity can amount to as little as 7,100 tons, including for industrial purposes. This amount is sufficient to meet the current demand. This week, the Government of India decided to allocate 6,822 tons of liquid oxygen per day to the 20 states most affected by Covid-19. This amount is larger than the total demand of these localities, which is 6,785 tons. Thus, the demand for oxygen for health care in India has nearly doubled in just one week. On April 12, the amount of oxygen required by the health sector was only about 3,842 tons. According to the Office of the Prime Minister of India, India’s oxygen capacity has increased by 3,300 tons in just a few days by shifting resources for steel production and industry to the medical sector. All of which are intended to serve Covid-19 patients The logistics of transporting oxygen is a priority at the moment. The Indian government has mobilized freight trains to move liquid oxygen tanks from the factory to localities in urgent need. The country uses Air Force cargo jets to transfer empty tanks to the factory. Then these oxygen tanks are refilled again and returned by road. In addition, the Indian military is importing 23 mobile oxygen production machines from Germany to prepare for the worse situation. Many industries are also reported to be supporting pure oxygen in hospitals. Tata multidisciplinary corporation of India has imported 24 specialized containers to transport liquid oxygen. The government has also ordered the conversion of argon and nitrogen storage tanks for medical oxygen transport. However, according to experts, with the increasing rate of SARS-CoV-2 virus infections as in the past days with more than 300,000 people per day, the demand for oxygen for medical purposes will continue to escalate. India needs to prepare to increase production and distribution of this particular type of medical supplies in the coming days.