COVID-19 second wave: Hospitals struggle across India; oxygen, remdesivir supplies key pain point

MUMBAI/BHOPAL/LUCKNOW/RAIPUR: Images of a long, snaking queue of ambulances with Covid-19 patients waiting for admission at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad and another long line of vehicles with Covid fatalities outside the Jahagirpura Crematorium in Surat captured the grim overall situation in Gujarat on Wednesday. 

While the state government sought to explain away the recurring ambulence queue outside the hospital over the past week, attributing it to following the pandemic protocol, the fact Gujarat reported 6,690 fresh cases and 67 fatalities in a day showed the disease burden it is grappling with.

Surat is now the Covid epicentre in Gujarat.

While the state health department claimed 22 fatalities in Surat on Wednesday, local officials and sources said the actual number was higher.

Maharashtra stayed on top of the national chart, registering 60,212 fresh positive cases and 281 deaths, which is why it began its fortnight long janta curfew at 8 pm.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray asked government officials to focus on setting up jumbo Covid-19 treatment centre, scale up oxygen production and break the chain of the virus to flatten the curve. Except for essential services, all activities will stay shut till May 1. 

Madhya Pradesh recorded 8,998 fresh cases in a day with 28 of its 52 districts logging in three-digit single-day spikes.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the Remdesivir situation was comfortable as  31,000 vials have already been procured, while 12,000 more will arrive by Thursday.

Remdesivir is administered to severely ill patients, but its efficacy is uncertain.

A state helicopter has been placed on standby to fly injections to all needy districts, Chouhan said, while admitting  that the supply of oxygen is a big challenge.

He has sought Railway minister Piyush Goyal’s to help to transport oxygen from Bhilai and Rourkela.

As for Uttar Pradesh’s graph, it kept climbing with 17,963 fresh cases, including that of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Four districts Lucknow, Prayagraj, Varanasi and Kanpur City accounted for over 45% of all new cases.

Chhattisgarh was third on the national table with 15,121 new infections in a day and a case positivity rate  of a whopping 28.6%.

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