The second wave of COVID-19 has been absolutely devastating for India. Over the past 15 days up to May 5, India has reported more than 360,000 COVID-19 cases every day on an average and over 3,100 deaths.
Scores of people have died in homes and ambulances parked outside hospitals waiting for a bed or oxygen. Patients and hospitals have struggled for supply of medical oxygen due to a crippling shortage.
Many patients have had to fend for themselves in a desperate bid to secure oxygen cylinders and beds in the hospital.
The acute shortage for medical oxygen and cries for help were reflected in online searches. Online search for the term oxygen in India picked up in April, shooting up in the last week of the month, data based on Google Trends for India show.
The graph does not represent absolute search volume number. The data is normalized and presented on a scale from 0–100, where each point on the graph is divided by the highest point or 100.
A downward trend indicates decreasing popularity of the searched term and not necessarily that decline in number of searches for that term. It means that its popularity is shrinking compared to other searches.
Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad were among the top cities that looked up for this term online. While in terms of states/union territories, Delhi topped, followed by Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Haryana and Uttarakhand.
Oxygen level, oxygen cylinder, concentrator, oxygen price were the top related queries based on the term.
Here are online search trends for other similar terms:
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