India's Covid-19 Crisis Leads To Black Market Price Explosion

India recorded another 320,000 Covid-19 infections on Tuesday as the country struggles to cope with a deadly surge of the disease. Hospitals in Delhi and many other cities have run out of beds and oxygen and patients are being turned away. Countries have scrambed to assist India with the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom among the governments sending aid. The first ventilators and oxygen have touched down in India but more aid is desperately needed.

The situation in Indian hospitals has seen the price of essential medical supplies skyrocket, according to an investigation carried out by the BBC. They found that the $80 price for a standard 50 liter oxygen cylinder has climbed as high as $1,330 on the black market while the cost of an oxygen concentrator has nearly tripled. Likewise, the cost of essential drugs has also risen dramatically. For example, the highest price for 100mg of Remdesivir in India was quoted by the BBC as $53 and this has climbed as high as $1,000 on the black market.