India’s Hospitals Are Struggling for Oxygen Supply as Pandemic Surges
- Hospitals scramble to ensure steady supplies of medical oxygen
- Jump in demand, transportation costs cause prices to soar
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Hospitals in several Indian states are struggling for medical oxygen as the country’s pandemic surges at the fastest rate in the world and manufacturers scramble to plug the gaps in the supply and transportation.
Most plants producing medical oxygen are concentrated in eastern and western India, leaving large areas of the densely populated north and center without quick access to the essential medical supply. The capital, New Delhi, and the states of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, with a combined population of some 200 million -- nearly as many people as Brazil -- don’t have a single unit manufacturing oxygen.