India Turns To Twitter In Desperate Hunt For Oxygen And Hospital Beds

Some are using the platform to share locations where gas cylinders, which are in limited supply, can be refilled. Others are posting details about patients in urgent need of help.

With India's coronavirus crisis becoming increasingly more desperate and beds, medicine and oxygen supplies scarce, people in cities across the country are relying on Twitter and the kindness of strangers for help during a time of national upheaval. About 360,000 new cases have been recorded in the past 24 hours alone. Some are using the platform to share locations where gas cylinders, which are in limited supply, can be refilled. Others are posting details about patients in urgent need of help. Some posts advertise which hospitals have empty beds and others ask for blood plasma donors. There are tweets that offer advice on how to stay safe and others that beg for ambulances before it is too late. "URGENT PLEASE! REQUIREMENT: ventilator urgently as hospital has no ventilator Delhi," reads one tweet flooding the platform with SOS calls. "Okay have a very critical 30 year old patient with SpO2 level < 50, wife is pregnant. Urgently need an ICU/ventilator bed in Gurugram," reads another.