NEW DELHI – India’s health care system is showing signs of suffering from the strain of a second wave of coronavirus infections as authorities reported nearly 300,000 new cases on Wednesday, killing more than 20 people in a Covid-19 hospital accident .
The crash happened at a hospital in the western state of Maharashtra after a leak in the hospital’s main oxygen tank stopped the flow of oxygen to dozens of critically ill people. Television footage showed family members crying in the wards and nurses angrily hitting some patients’ chests.
Hospitals in India are warning of an acute oxygen deficiency all week. Many hospital officials said they were just a few hours away from running out.
“Nobody thought it would happen,” said Subhash Salunke, a medical adviser to the Maharashtra government.
India is now home to the world’s fastest growing Covid-19 crisis, which reported 294,000 new infections and more than 2,000 deaths on Wednesday. As the supply of hospital beds, oxygen and vaccines dwindles, criticism of the government increases.
In a televised speech on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to be more cautious, but said locks were a last resort. States and cities are increasingly going to lock up on their own, and critics believe the government’s mixed messages are exacerbating matters.
As examples, they point to recent political rallies that Mr. Modi held, which drew thousands of people, as well as the government’s decision to allow a huge Hindu festival to continue, despite signs that it had become a distributor event. A few days ago, Mr. Modi indicated that he wants Hindu worshipers to stay away from this year’s festival called the Kumbh Mela, which is held on the banks of the Ganges River which is considered sacred by many Hindus.
But worshipers continue – 70,000 turned up on Wednesday for a sacred dive, bringing the total to more than ten million since the festival began in January – and government officials are doing nothing to stop them.
Event organizers said worshipers had to deliver a negative coronavirus test result or be tested on the spot, but they also acknowledged that some participants could move in with such large crowds without being tested. Photos show a sea of worshipers packed together in the gray water of the river, many without masks. According to reports by the Indian news media, more than 1,000 tested positive on the site in just 48 hours.
Leaders of India’s political opposition and religious minorities say the government of Mr. Modi, who is strongly rooted in a Hindu first worldview, prefers Hindus.
“This is a clear example of double standards,” said Khalid Rasheed, chairman of the Islamic Center of India, a non-profit religious organization.
He compared the government’s apparent endorsement of the Kumbh to the way it handled a much smaller gathering of several thousand Islamic preachers in New Delhi last March. Not only was the seminary that hosted it closed, but hundreds of people were detained. Officials of Mr. Modi’s party blamed the seminary for spreading the virus.
This sparked an anti-Muslim campaign in India in which Muslims were attacked with cricket bats and ran out of their neighborhoods. Many of the Muslims arrested at the seminary a year ago are still awaiting trial.
Government officials have so defensively defended the Kumbh festival, even though the virus has infected some of its most conspicuous participants, including the former king of Nepal and his wife.
Another visitor who is infected is Tirath Singh Rawat, the prime minister of Uttarakhand, who as the state hosting this year’s festival earns millions in revenue from the pilgrims and vendors. Mr. Rawat mingled freely in the crowd without a mask and told those who questioned him, “faith in God will overcome the fear of the virus.”
Shailesh Bagauli, a government official, said the timing of the festival was determined by “optimal astrological conditions” and that the government was taking measures such as masking and social distancing.
On Wednesday, news of the oxygen leak in the hospital spread rapidly across the country, raising fears that the health care system here, which is chronically underfunded, is about to collapse.
Indian news channels showed images of the oxygen leak at Zakir Hussain Hospital in Nashik city.
“When we reached the place, it was foggy,” said SK Bairagi, a fire chief in the city. He said it took about 30 minutes to repair the tank.
The dwindling oxygen supply is becoming one of the most worrying aspects of India’s second wave. To expedite delivery to hospitals, India’s railway service across the country has started calling an oxygen train.
The Indian Ministry of Health said that the daily demand for oxygen at hospitals reached about 60 percent of the country’s daily production capacity of just over 7,000 tons. Government officials warned in news reports this week that India had increased oxygen exports as the second wave of infections approached, saying that exports accounted for less than 1 percent of daily production capacity.
But the health ministry also said it was looking at importing 50,000 tonnes of medical oxygen from abroad, a sign that the government of India may be concerned about the domestic supply.
On Tuesday night, more than a dozen hospitals in the capital, New Delhi, issued a warning saying it was hours away from oxygen burning.
In Lucknow, another major city in northern India, the Mayo Medical Center on Wednesday warned that it was a 15-minute backup and that oxygen was not available anywhere in Lucknow. ‘
Later that day, hospital officials said they had received 40 oxygen cylinders. But medical experts said it was such a dangerous time to get low with so many people getting sick.
“There is definitely an oxygen shortage across the country,” said Shashank Joshi, an endocrinologist and member of the Covid task force in Maharashtra. “The situation is bleak.”
Mujib Mashal reported from New Delhi, andBhadra Sharma of Kathmandu, Nepal.