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 The worst time, he said, was in the weeks after the federal
government imposed a sweeping lockdown to contain the disease in
late March, when roads were deserted, police made arbitrary checks
and roadside restaurants, repair shops and motels were shuttered.
But the oxygen he was carrying was saving the lives of thousands of
those infected.
"We were on duty," said the 33-year-old driver with Linde India Ltd
<LIND.NS>, an affiliate of the world's largest supplier of
industrial gases, Linde Plc <LIN.N>. "It's not like we could just
give up and go home."
With India's COVID-19 infections surging since March and many
patients struggling to breathe, hospitals have scrambled to secure
supplies of medical oxygen, increasing pressure on people like Yadav
and companies like Linde to deliver them in time.
The government says demand for medical oxygen has jumped four times
of the commodity from local factories to other regions. Around half
of the total liquid oxygen production in India is now being used for
medical needs, up from only 15% earlier.
Linde, which competes with nearly two dozen oxygen suppliers in
India, including France's Air Liquide <AIRP.PA>, has responded by
tweaking its production lines away from industrial gases like
nitrogen and argon, company officials told Reuters.
It has also deployed its entire fleet of trucks, bringing back even
grounded vehicles, to deliver medical oxygen to hospitals across the
country, many of them in the hinterlands with limited storage
capacity.
"Despite the limitations, there has not been a single stock-out
situation for our partner hospitals," Linde India said.
Still, as infections peaked in India in mid-September, hospitals in
some parts of the country were left gasping for oxygen.
The government says supplies have since stabilised. It has also
floated a global tender to import 100,000 tonnes of oxygen. Linde
said it is considering shipping in the commodity, besides bringing
additional containers, from its facilities outside the country.
MAXIMUM OXYGEN
India has the world's second highest number of confirmed coronavirus
infections at more than 8 million, behind only the United States.
But India's deaths-per-million people ratio of around 88 is one of
the lowest in the world among hard hit countries, and the government
has said getting oxygen to critical patients in time has played a
key role.
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Linde India's factory in Selaqui, at the foot of the Himalayas in northern
India, is set up to produce 154 tonnes of oxygen daily, but since the pandemic,
the facility has churned out up to 161 tonnes.
"We did maximum oxygen production," said Surendra Singh, a Linde India business
head. "Almost 85-90% went to medical (clients)."
It helped that industrial demand itself had come down because of the lockdown,
though the reopening of the economy could change that.
To ship the oxygen to hospitals - the furthest is 680 km (420 miles), a two-day
drive away - and two regional depots, the factory depends on a fleet of 33
container trucks and a pool of 66 drivers.
Its fleet has on-board cameras, GPS trackers and elaborate safety procedures to
ensure timely deliveries - rare aids for Indian truckers.
Then, its drivers discovered that all the roadside restaurants and motels where
they would stop for a meal or a night's rest were shuttered. So the factory's
small canteen provided them with packed meals, along with biscuits and dry
fruit.
Despite masks and protective gear, drivers also worried about catching the virus
when they had to spend hours inside hospital compounds, transferring liquid
oxygen from their vehicles to storage tanks, sometimes located next to
mortuaries.
Now, with India's daily coronavirus cases dropping, there is some comfort among
Linde officials and its frontline drivers.
But experts have warned that coronavirus cases may surge during the winter,
again putting pressure on medical infrastructure, including oxygen supplies,
even as industrial use of the gas picks up.
And despite a challenging seven months on the highway, drivers like Yadav said
they were prepared for more.
"Doctors are working hard, the nurses are working hard, and we are doing our
part," Yadav said. "If we give up, then the hospitals will close down."
(Reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Krishna N Das and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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