Inside A Delhi Hospital, Oxygen Runs Fatally Short

Experts believe that the influence of new variants, changes in people's behavior and complacency on the part of the government have combined to produce a tidal wave of cases.

As night fell, the full desperation of the hospital's plight became clear. Its oxygen supply was running out and no help was coming. Ravinder Kumar has worked at Jaipur Golden Hospital in India's capital for nearly three decades. All through Friday, he and the other members of the staff called everyone they could think of - oxygen vendors, other hospitals, the police, city officials - in a frantic search for fresh supply. "It was as if the entire city was looking for oxygen," said Mr Kumar, 55. "I have never felt so helpless in my whole life." Around 10 p.m., as the hospital's tanks neared empty, the oxygen pressure dropped, disrupting the flow needed for severely ill patients. Within a couple of hours, 26 of them died, said Mr Kumar. The deaths marked a grim new turn in India's battle with a devastating second wave of coronavirus cases. The country reported more than 346,786 new cases on Saturday, the third consecutive day of record-breaking infections. More than 2,600 people died, although experts say that figure is a vast undercount.