The men stood shoulder to shoulder in the blazing heat, their chests leaning against empty oxygen cylinders lodged in the dirt. Many are paying the equivalent of several months’ salary to buy oxygen cylinders on the black market. Gangs are hoarding cylinders and devices called “concentrators” that can draw medical oxygen from the air. A COVID-19 patient in New Delhi sits in a car and breathes with the help of oxygen provided by a gurdwara, a Sikh house of worship, in response to India’s medical oxygen shortage. India recently mobilized the military to airlift oxygen supplies and has sent thousands of tons of liquid medical oxygen across the country on trains dubbed the Oxygen Express.

Source: Los Angeles Times May 13, 2021 18:33 UTC