Oxygen dearth in Indonesia

(Hemantha Thusitha Kumara)

63 patients at a Hospital in Java died on Saturday night and Sunday morning, after using their oxygen supply until the end, CNN reported.

Since the number of COVID-19 cases has increased as a new wave, capacity of the hospital and the use of oxygen has become more essential than the hospital expected. The effort to bring oxygen from outside has become unsuccessful. But by Sunday morning the hospital was able to get oxygen.

Indonesian Minister of Epidemiology Luhuth Binsar Pandijaithan said oxygen cylinders and 1,000 ventilators and other supplies had been shipped from Singapore on Friday.1000 ventilators have also been shipped from Australia. In addition, he said that they hope  to buy 36,000 tons of oxygen from Singapore.

 Indonesia had supplied oxygen to India two months ago and the situation in Indonesia has changed drastically with the rise of the Delta variety.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 2.4 million cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Indonesia since the outbreak and that more than 64,000 have died from the disease. Analysts point out that the figures should be much higher as Indonesia is a country that does less tests per day