Patients die gasping for air

As the macabre crisis of oxygen shortage, overstretched resources, and overworked healthcare workers continued unabated, families and friends ran from pillar to post to get their loved ones into hospitals, mostly without success. As Delhi has detected 25,000 new Covid cases on average daily for the past week, the number of patients needing hospital care has risen sharply. But hospitals have been complaining of an acute shortage of oxygen since Monday — and some have been turning away patients despite having beds only because there is no oxygen to administer to them. GTB, the second-largest Covid facility after Lok Nayak Hospital, was among the hospitals that sounded an alarm over depleting oxygen stocks. They did get some supply, but it was not enough to meet the demand.