 Coronavirus cases continue to climb, with the country seeing a record daily jump. Nearly 98,000 cases have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the overall tally past the 51 lakh mark. Now, recoveries have also increased by over 82,000 for the second consecutive day, while the number of deaths remain over 1,000 for the 16th straight day. However, replying to a question in parliament about how many healthcare workers have died during the outbreak, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the government did not have the complete data on the number. This follows a similar statement by the Minister of State for Health Ashwini Chaubey earlier this week. In response to those statements, the Indian Medical Association has published a list of 382 doctors who have died due to the disease and demanded that they be treated as martyrs. The IMA has responded to the junior health minister's statement, calling it an, I quote, an abdication of duty and abandonment of the national heroes who stood up for our people. End of quote. Now, reports have also emerged from states of Maharashtra, UP and Gujarat about hospitals grappling with an oxygen supply shortage as demand is more than triples. However, the health ministry has said that there is no shortage of oxygen for medical use, in fact, insisting that there is surplus production. According to health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, a little over 6 percent of COVID patients in the country were on oxygen support in hospitals and this includes 3.69 percent on oxygen support, 2.17 percent on ICU beds and 0.36 percent on ventilator support. Well, to discuss all of that and more, we'll shortly be joined by a panel of experts. Joining us now to take the discussion forward is Dr Rajan Sharma, the president of the Indian Medical Association, Viren Shetty, the EDN group CEO of Narayana Health, Dr Mohan Joshi, the dean of the Nair Hospital and Dr Sunil Karan, chairman and consultant of critical care medicine from Manipal Hospital. A gentleman, appreciate you joining us here on the program. Of course, the caseload continues to be a cause for concern. But Dr Sunil Karanth, let me ask you what we just heard there from Dr Joshi. He's, of course, talking about dealing with patients who are infected with COVID. I want to also specifically ask you about the challenges that frontline healthcare workers themselves are facing. You're managing hospitals, sir. How are you coping with this? You know, the expectation was that by now we would start to see a peak and we would start to see the caseload decline. That's clearly not the case. A lot of medical professionals that we've spoken to have spoken about COVID fatigue setting in. How are you dealing with not just patients who are infected, but health care workers who are dealing with the pandemic as well? Yeah, I think you have, you know, when you question, you have hit the point right on the spot, COVID fatigue is setting in, in amount of healthcare workers. And rightly so, there is a lot of uncertainty that we right now have with regards to the how long this duration of illness is going to go, how long this pandemic is going to continue. And with no immediate sight of a vaccine also, you know, when is this all going to come under control is the big question we have moving over us. I think one of the major concerns have been also that, you know, there are multiple mathematical projections which have been done right through and every time there has been a revision of this and we don't see an end, which is there very soon for this. So I think the initial enthusiasm, the effort which went in from all quarters, including the lockdown and the preparation that we have done now seems abysmally short, despite all the precautions and the preliminary work that we did because the case note just seems to be rising every day. If you look at the graph in different parts of the country, certain parts of the country where the infection was well under control has also now become a center of hotspots. And I think it's right, it's ravaging right across the country. And big metros are under a lot of pressure. We have people coming from the second aspect into the big metros. So we are really battling with a lot of cases coming in. The idea to do this is also the question of healthcare workers going off duty because either they are infected or they are unwell due to a variety of other problems. And there is a demoralizing effect that seems to be coming on a lot of healthcare workers. And if you look at certain front end specialities like pulmonology, ICU, ER, the community-based services, they have been relentlessly on the field for about five, six months now. And the last two to three months has been very, very cumbersome for the entire system. And we are very worried that it's a matter of time for the system to start scrambling. And to add to this with the unlocking, we are seeing other kinds of patients coming in. There are a lot of kinds of surgeries beginning to happen. They've got post-traumatization, they have started a whole lot of other infections which we often see in monsoon, which is also beginning to take us five. So we are now facing a double-edged problem. Correct, correct. We are really struggling to cope with the situation. Okay, the system is struggling to cope, not just with COVID, but now there is a rise in non-COVID infections as well. Dr. Sunil Karan, let me ask you about an issue that is currently being faced, which is the supply-demand mismatch. As far as oxygen is concerned, can you take me through what you are experiencing because you were also talking about how there is an influx of patients into the cities from tier two, tier three towns. We are hearing about the lack of oxygen. We know that a committee has been set up. There is the possibility of industrial oxygen being diverted to medical supplies. What are you hearing, Dr. Sunil Karanth? So there is a definite sort of suggestion that there seems to be some sort of shortage of oxygen. But I think more than the acute shortage, this could be a problem with distribution as well. Certainly there are, like in most other aspects of medical infrastructure, there is a lot of maldistribution of things. And I think many a time it is due to either lack of oxygen reaching the district headquarters on time, or it could be because of a mechanical failure or a problem which exists in the already existing oxygen plant. So I think it is a little difficult to say that there could be an acute shortage at this point of time. But my worry would be that moving forward, there is a possibility that we may end up having shortages if we don't look at this problem as a potential one. And also to ensure that there is constant supply of this emergency, what I would say as a therapeutic or a medicine, as important as you give such as the vital drugs as well as the cereals such as things. Because any time just from there, like just in the box, it's just a full state life. Okay, so manageable at this point in time, but it is something that we should watch out for and look at the distribution and inventory management as well. That is the perfect note to wrap this discussion on. And I do hope that policymakers are listening into what Dr. Rajan Sharma, president of the IMA, Viren Shetty of Narayana Health, Dr. Mohan Joshi of the Sine Hospital and Dr. Sunil Karanth of Manipal Hospitals have had to say don't force doctors into buckets of government and private. These are healthcare workers who are dealing with the pandemic on the frontline. They need to be treated with respect, with dignity, and they need to be given protection irrespective of whether they're private or government. Thanks very much for joining us here on CineBC TV. It's an appreciate your time. With that, it is time for us to wrap up the special edition of Restarting India. Don't go anywhere. We will be back in a moment.