Indians Googling ¡®How To Make Oxygen At Home¡¯, As Covid Crisis Intensifies

While browsing through Twitter I stumbled across a tweet of Vishal Gondal -- founder of fitness band Goqii and NCore Games -- the developers behind FAU-G. In the tweet, he shared a screenshot of his search suggestions on Google Search.

Try searching how to make in @Google
See the recommendations
Pretty much sums up the current situation. Saab key liye Oxygen bhej do bhagwan ? pic.twitter.com/dVGzgoX4lo

¡ª Vishal Gondal (@vishalgondal) April 22, 2021

The search query started from ¡®how to¡¯ and one of the first suggestions on the list was ¡®how to make oxygen¡¯ followed by the next suggestion ¡®how to make oxygen cylinder¡¯.

This made me curious to take a look at the search trend that led to these results. For this, I headed to Google Trends and looked at the trends from a week ago and from a month ago, and safe to say, the results were definitely surprising.

Also Read: Decreasing Interest In Covid-19 And Increase In Cases Means We Have Other Things On Our Mind

Looking at Google Trends for the search term ¡®how to make oxygen at home¡¯ (highlighted in red) showed a search value of 100 today. A week ago from today (around April 15), this search term showed a search value of 10 to 13.

Most search interest for this term was seen in the state of Gujarat at 70, followed by Maharashtra at 49, Uttar Pradesh at 55, Madhya Pradesh at 46.

Google Trends

Similarly for the search term ¡®how to make oxygen¡¯ (highlighted in blue) showed a search value of 36 today, and a week ago this search term was at around 5. Here too, Gujarat topped the list in terms of Search Interest, coming at 87 followed by Maharashtra at 61 and Uttar Pradesh at 55.

Taking a look back a month ago, just a few days before Holi celebrations in the nation, both the search terms showed a search value of just four.

Also Read: She Asked For Covid-19 Help Online, Guys Harassed Her With Dick Pics Instead

Google Trends

Oxygen shortage is worsening Covid crisis

Whether these search results were by people looking to help loved ones in need or whether it was by people looking to earn a quick buck while they sit jobless at their homes, but this surely shows how dire the situation surrounding oxygen storage has become -- especially in places like New Delhi where an extreme shortage of oxygen cylinders was experienced throughout the city.

Also Read: Seeing India¡¯s Covid-19 Oxygen Crisis, Aerospace Company Stops Oxygen-Based Tests

Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia blamed a local officer in Faridabad who didn¡¯t allow an oxygen truck from entering the city, resulting in the shortage. An oxygen leak incident that occurred in a hospital in Nashik resulted in the death of 22 COVID-19 patients.

Reuters

But people are coming to the rescue

However, the internet as a community has come together, to help and connect people who are in need of essentials to survive this pandemic.

Also Read: Oxygen To Food: Facebook, WhatsApp Groups Offering Help For Covid-19 Care

Whether it¡¯s creating an app to find available oxygen cylinders or several groups on social media platforms that network and offer leads for essentials during this pandemic.

These groups aren't just restricted to oxygen cylinders, but also hospital beds, blood plasma, food and even allowing many to volunteer and help others in these dark times.

ALSO READ: He Built Free App For Covid-19 Hospital Beds, Oxygen, Plasma Info Across India