Tamil Nadu battles shortage of beds, oxygen and vaccines

Tamil Nadu finds itself in a somewhat precarious position with the number of daily new Covid-19 infections steadily rising in the state despite a full lockdown.

The state is grappling with high test positivity rate, an increasing death rate, glitches in the Covid-19 vaccination drive and a severe shortage of oxygen and hospital beds.

On Thursday, the state reported 35,579 new Covid-19 cases — a steep rise from the 20,742 reported earlier this month. Also, deaths due to the infection have more than doubled to 397 on May 20 from 153 in early May.


The total number of active cases has gone up from 120,444 on May 2 to 263,390 on Thursday. The test positivity rate for the same period has increased from 15.11% to 21.87%. This comes despite the newly-elected state government having imposed a 14-day complete lockdown till May 24.

State capital Chennai continues to be the worst affected district in the state with 6,073 new cases on Thursday.

The number of active cases in the capital stands at 47,667. Coimbatore trails Chennai with 28,363 cases while Chennai's neighbouring district, Chengalpattu, had 15,240 active cases on Thursday.

“There are now so many cases and so few beds that when you call the helpline, they do not take your request seriously, unless the patient's oxygen level dips below 92 or sometimes 90,” said Sasikumar, a resident of Cuddalore, who was looking for an ICU bed for his mother.

K Ravi, a resident of Chennai, said he’s not been able to arrange for oxygen facility at home for his ailing parents for three days now, and hence can’t get them back from hospital despite the doctor’s advice that they can recover at home if there’s oxygen facility.