Crowd at PM’s Rally As People Look for Oxygen, Beds is Kaafi Real

Distressed relatives of COVID patients struggle to search for hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, among others.

This comes at a time when families and distressed relatives of people suffering from COVID-19 struggle to search for hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, medicines, among others.

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

As the country continues to record the highest one-day spike in COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing a rally in West Bengal’s Asansol on 17 April said that he was elated to see a large gathering at the public meeting.

“Today, in all directions, I have seen such a rally for the first time...today you have shown such a force, such power...wherever I see, I just see people,” he said.

This comes at a time when families and distressed relatives of people suffering from COVID-19 struggle to search for hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, medicines, among other necessities.

(Illustration by Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

Not only that, several hospitals in the national capital and other parts of the country have been sending out SOS calls pleading for oxygen supply as they struggled to cope with COVID patients requiring the life-saving gas.

New Delhi’s Jaipur Golden Hospital on Saturday, 24 April, said that 20 people had died while in care due to oxygen shortage, reported ANI. The hospital added that its oxygen supply would only last half an hour now.

Delhi’s Moolchand hospital sent out an urgent SOS call, saying that they had less than two hours of oxygen support remaining.

Several crematoriums in the country have been reporting long queues and are working overtime to cope with the surge in number of deaths from India’s accelerating COVID-19 outbreak.

In the photos accessed by The Quint, families of the deceased could be seen lined up outside crematoriums as they awaited their turn at crematoriums in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.

As the healthcare system struggles to handle the second wave of coronavirus and many states imposing night curfews and strict restrictions to control the movement of people, hundreds of migrant workers in different areas of the country were seen rushing to bus stops and railway stations in the hope of getting home.

(Kaafi Real is a series of cartoons on The Quint. You can check out all our other Kaafi Real cartoons here.)