Between April 5 and April 20, searches for “oxygen” on Google, Flipkart, Amazon, and YouTube apps went up 60 times. Searches for “oxygen concentrators” went up 400 times and for “oxygen cylinders” close to 100 times during the period.
The COVID-19 situation in India currently is in the direst condition possible. The silence on the Central and many States Government’s part has meant that citizens have to fend for themselves and run from pillar to post for oxygen, Remdesivir, ventilators, beds, and other medications. Apart from frantic searches and phone calls, the internet remains the last hope for many.
As per a detailed report on Quartz, by market intelligence firm Kalagato. between April 5 and April 20, searches for “oxygen” on Google, Flipkart, Amazon, and YouTube apps went up 60 times. Searches for “oxygen concentrators” went up 400 times and for “oxygen cylinders” close to 100 times during the period. This spike in search trends was on expected lines especially from Jan 2021 when India reported under 20000 cases and less than 250 deaths. As of today, India has reported over 4,00,000 and close to 4000 deaths.
The report further said that searches for ventilators surged 12 times in April as compared to the start of the year. It’s significantly less than oxygen likely because, following the first wave, there was much debate about whether ventilators do harm or good.
Anecdotally, doctors have noticed higher mortality among Covid-19 patients who are put on ventilators, making many reluctant to use them. Often, noninvasive devices such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP, the sleep apnea device) and bilevel positive airway pressure ventilators (BiPAP) will do the job, experts have said.
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Remdesivir, another medication for which there’s a frantic rush to buy for patients and even news reports of the drug being sell in the black market saw a 400 times rise in search in Mid April compared to January 2021.
On the brighter side, the report noted that there’s a willingness to be vaccinated among people. “They’re looking for options.” Searches for “vaccine” towards the end of April—right before all adults became eligible—were up nearly 10 times compared to January.
Unfortunately, India’s vaccination drive has been moving at a crawling rate due to immense shortages.
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