At his crowded emergency room in central New Delhi, Ali Raza can’t focus much on when the next delivery of oxygen will arrive — 12 of his 20 doctors are down with COVID-19, and the patients just keep coming.
"We always anticipated a second wave in April and May, but we never knew it would hit us so hard and so fast,” said Raza, the director of emergency and trauma at Moolchand Hospital. "They arrive gasping and they all need oxygen.”
Outside the ward’s double doors, Gagandeep Trehan had just found out there was no bed or oxygen available for his uncle, who was struggling to breathe. Trehan had driven 310 kilometers (192 miles) to Delhi from the northern state of Punjab in search of a bed, his car packed with four oxygen tanks to keep his uncle alive. Six hospitals had already turned him away and he was about to get back in his car and try number seven.
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