"Oxygen Express" trains have taken to the country's rails in an effort to move emergency tanks to the most vulnerable patients.
news.sky.com
So Indian Drs are short on oxygen, I don't understand why given how easy it is to make.
It's all to do with the way piped oxygen is supplied. Yes, oxygen is in the air but to get it at the concentrations and flow rates needed an industrial process needed. You can use machines called oxygen concentrators but these don't work beyond about 6l/min flow rates. Most ventilators need 40-50l/min flow rate just to produce pressure and keep lungs inflated etc.
Hospitals have things called vacuum insulated evaporators (VIEs) - sort of a giant thermos flask containing liquid oxygen where oxygen is evaporated and drawn off depending on demand.
If the overall flow rate exceeds capacity pressure drops. Also, when flow rates are high the pipes get very cold and can freeze (there's actually an emergency protocol around sending someone with a hosepipe to keep it defrosted)
Gas dynamics a lot like electricity- imagine you've wired a lot of light bulbs in series. Eventually they will be dimmer as the current passing through through is reduced by the increased resistance.
In oxygen, if you normally have 50 patients on say 5l oxygen, but now your hospital has 200 patients on 15l then the same will happen - the draw is faster than the VIE can cope with and the pressure also drops as lots of demand.
So even if the VIE is full, oxygen can drop.
Now add infrastructure failure and the people who should deliver the liquid oxygen to top the VIE uo being sick and supply chain issues.
It's terrifying, tragic and incredibly sad. I'm not sure all the packed teat matches were worth it