03 May 2021
India is facing a devastating COVID-19 outbreak. Having successfully managed the first pandemic wave in 2020, the country is now reeling from the gravity of a deadly second wave that is infecting over 300,000 people every single day. Heartbreaking scenes of patients lying outside hospitals on stretchers or inside cars due to a lack of beds have circulated around the world, and a severe scarcity of oxygen is contributing to a death toll that is running sky-high. The last 24 hours alone (3 May) saw 392,000 new cases and 3,689 deaths, according to the WHO.
As part of the Global Fund’s COVID-19 Response Mechanism 2021, the Global Fund is urgently processing a fast-track funding application from India’s Country Coordinating Mechanism to purchase oxygen concentrators and to finance Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants to help meet the medium-term needs for medical oxygen. We are working closely with the Government of India and national partners to identify solutions to the most critical needs.