India is reeling under a COVID deluge. People are dying on the streets due to lack of hospital beds, drugs and oxygen. Oxygen that we take for granted in our lives here is a precious commodity now in India and prices have soared by 350-400% for oxygen concentrators and tanks in India. Hospital beds are hard to come by and hospitals have to turn away even emergent cases due to lack of resources. Many patients have to stay in ambulances on portable oxygen outside hospitals waiting for a spot to open up watching the oxygen tank content slowly ebb away. Many places which don't have pipeline oxygen supply are in dire straits. In places where the health care infrastructure is better, drug shortages and lack of ventilators are claiming lives by the minute. Some hospitals are asking patient’s relatives to purchase Remdesivir from private pharmacies due to acute shortages, which if they are lucky enough to do, is often at exorbitant prices. Crematoriums are running 24x7 at full capacity. This is a catastrophe of epic proportions and we all need to act in this time of need and help our fellow human beings and a country survive this carnage.
Ref: https://www.npr.org/2021/04/24/990544555/oxygen-rationing-test-shortages-india-caught-unprepared-in-covid-19-crisis
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/26/india/india-covid-international-aid-intl-hnk/index.html
