Second Virus Wave Overwhelms India Hospitals as Shots Run Low

(Bloomberg) -- India is facing an escalating health crisis, with its second wave of virus infections hitting record highs, overwhelming hospitals around the country as supplies of intensive care beds and vital drugs come under pressure.

Across the South Asian nation, from the wealthiest and also the worst-hit state of Maharashtra to its most populous, Uttar Pradesh, reports are emerging of hospital beds running short and immunization centers turning away people as they run out of vaccines. India reported more than 131,000 new infections Friday, and with over 13 million virus cases lags behind only the U.S. and Brazil.

On Wednesday Maharashtra’s Health Minister Rajesh Tope said the state had about three days worth of shots in stocks and vaccination centers across the state were being forced to shut down. The state capital Mumbai has also currently used up all but 3% of its intensive care hospital beds.

India’s Virus Epicenter Has Only Three Days of Vaccines in Stock

India’s capital New Delhi on Thursday reported more than 7,400 new infections, the highest so far in this year, with health care workers some of the worst affected. At Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, one of the city’s top institutions, 37 doctors had been infected with Covid-19 with mostly mild symptoms, two people at the hospital said, asking not to be identified because the information wasn’t public.

In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh’s capital, as many as 40 doctors at the state-run in King Georges’ Medical University College have been infected, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

“It’s going to be a horrible next two months,” said Shuchin Bajaj, a director at the Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals, which runs 14 hospitals across north India. “The impact is ten times what it was last year. This time it seems to affecting younger patients.”

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A state-run Mumbai hospital had run out of ICU and oxygen beds, a doctor who asked not to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the information said, adding the new surge in infections was bringing larger numbers of daily patients than the country’s first wave.

There were also reports of shortages of Remdesivir, a broad spectrum anti-viral medication used to treat Covid-19, Bajaj said, adding that getting supplies of the drug was becoming difficult at his hospitals.

“The only good news that we know now what needs to be done,” said Bajaj. “We know what the warning signs are. We’re not experimenting with patients.”

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