India has been struck by a deadly second wave of COVID-19. Bihar, one of India’s poorest and highest population areas, is surging with new cases and deaths. More than 2 million people over the past two weeks have been diagnosed.
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Where India needs the most help
India’s health ministry says that the country has the oxygen it needs, but is facing bottlenecks in the transportation from facilities in industrial locations to hospitals where it is needed.
On Sunday the Indian government approved funds to set up 551 new oxygen generators at hospitals across the country. Special trains carrying oxygen, which is difficult to transport due to its high flammability, have also been sent to shortage-hit cities.
But there are other shortages, too. India is facing scarcity of critical drugs for treating serious cases of COVID-19 including Remdesivir and sedatives for patients on ventilators.
Authorities have warned that the shortages have been made worse by concerned citizens panic-buying. “Hoarding of injections like remdesivir and oxygen in homes is creating a panic and this hoarding is causing a shortage of these medicines,” said the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Sunday. The cost of a shot of Remdesivir on the black market has risen from some $12 to $600, the Economist reported. Extra supply would help ease such pressures.
There is also a shortage of hospital beds and, more importantly, ventilators needed to treat the most severely ill COVID patients. “India’s health system is on the verge of collapse,” said Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, in a Washington Post article Saturday, in which he called on the U.S. to help India set up field hospitals to increase the number of beds available.
“At this point medical supplies, oxygen and vaccines are the most important things we need,” says Yamini Aiyar, President of the Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi think tank. “Multilateral aid will be crucial.”-TIME
Others have been sharing reputable organizations engaged in work on the ground in the hopes of encouraging those who can to support those efforts. Some of these organizations, like Give India, have hubs where you can choose to donate money to vetted funds for the purchase of life-saving medical equipment, food for families dealing with hunger, or reusable sanitary pads for women and girls who have gone without because of pandemic pressures. Each accepts foreign donations.
https://sewausa.org/Covid-19-Support-Bharath-Fundraiser
Please, leave in the comments if there are other resources you have found.