India prepares for future COVID surge as cases inch up

• ByStartupStory     |    August 31, 2021

India prepares for future COVID surge as cases inch up. India’s health infrastructure proved inadequate when COVID-19 cases surged in April and May this year, leading to tens of thousands of deaths as hospitals ran out of oxygen and beds. Infections have started rising again and experts warn of another big jump around October, India’s peak festival season. Federal and state governments have said they are more prepared this time around. Dedicated hospitals to treat COVID patients have jumped 27 times to 4,389 from April last year. More than 18,000 other centres have been set up mainly for less-serious patients.

Oxygen-supported beds rise eightfold to 416,947. Total isolation beds jumped to 1.8 million from 10,180 in March 2020. ICU beds rose to 124,598 from 2,168 in March 2020. Testing capacity jumps to more than 2 million samples a day from 30,000 in April 2020. The health ministry has supplied about 45,000 ventilators to government hospitals across the country. The federal government and its ministries are setting up a total of 1,573 PSA oxygen-generation plants, although fewer than 300 plants had started by early August. Total number of medical oxygen carriers has gone up by 225 to 1,244 since March 2020. Almost all states are setting up special paediatric wards as experts warn unvaccinated children could be vulnerable to any new mutations in the virus.

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