There are no more than four to five terms that you and I are hearing and perhaps on an everyday basis here in India. It’s almost like as if our daily vernacular has come to be dominated by these following terms:
Deaths!
Oxygen cylinders!
COVID 19!
Hospitals!
Rush of admissions!
In fact, as an addition, one might add the phrase- increase in number of patients to the above-listed tally.
And now, where it comes to the past few days, then there’s been a ceaseless rise in the number of cases where one’s facing a dearth in supply of oxygen cylinders. Although, what’s also changed is that more and more urban cities in India have increased haggling for this critical instrument during these vicious COVID 19 days.
Cities like Mumbai, Gurgaon, Noida and Delhi are endlessly in search for oxygen cylinders. And here comes a bit of a shocker from the southern city of Chennai. So the key question is- just what is the cost of affording an oxygen concentrator in the capital of Tamil Nadu?
Well, believe it or not, affording an oxygen concentrator in Chennai costs 5 times more than it would anywhere else.
And what could be the reason for the same?
Well, panic renting?
There’s a sense of panic in the air. The buying of oxygen concentrators, which is a portable device that uses the ambient air to deliver medical grade oxygen, especially by the COVID 19 patients (those who are under home isolation) has led to a situation wherein the rental rates for affording the same have gone up. And this very scenario has seen a rapid rise in the cost (which is now five times more than what you’d find anywhere else).
Similarly, the sales price for acquiring oxygen concentrators have increased multifold too.
One’s compelled to ask, just what on earth is going on? Why’s there boundless panic among the citizens of Chennai?
But all of that being said, let’s arrive at a critical question. What was originally the rent of the device, on a monthly basis and where has it reached now? To that end, it’s important to know that the price, which was around Rs 4,000 a few days ago has today, increased five times to an improbable 20,000 a month!
If that’s not crazy then what is?
But wait, it doesn’t end just there; the same concentrators that were being sold for no more than 42,000 to 45,000 are today being sold for Rs 80,000 a piece.
Furthermore, not only are those individuals renting the Oxygen concentrators in the city of Chennai who are currently marred by COVID 19, but also those citizens who are recuperating at home.
The increase in rental volume is probably also down to the fact that there’s this intrinsic fear in the minds of the Chennai citizens that the hospitals are over-capacitated by patients and that there also happens to be a genuine dearth of beds in the city.
There’s no readily available answer as to when might the situation better in the course of the immediate future or whether things will settle down soon in the first place. Though, a thing must be said in no uncertain terms- that negative thinking and needless panicking won’t help for sure.