India has been hit by an unprecedented second wave of COVID-19 outbreak, which has caused an unbelievable number of infections and deaths and devastated the country’s healthcare infrastructure.
While the daily number of cases has been falling since early May, the number of deaths has hit the roof, breaking the global record for the number of deaths in a single day. On Thursday, the country hit over 6,000 deaths, surpassing the record number of daily deaths set by the United States earlier this year.
Reports and images coming out of the country show rows and rows of dead bodies waiting for burial, with workers working around the clock nonstop to cremate the bodies. Family members who couldn’t find space in the crematorium dump their dead in the Ganges river or build makeshift pyres in parks and parking lots.
India’s Health Ministry data on COVID-19 showed 6,148 deaths, which is the highest number of fatalities recorded in a single day globally, with daily reported cases below the 100,000 mark for the third consecutive day.
Every day, we see numerous social media posts from families desperately searching for hospital beds and life-saving oxygen cylinders and medicines. Even doctors are shown on television pleading for oxygen as their hospitals’ stocks run out. Mostly, families are forced to pay exorbitant prices for oxygen on the black market to save their loved ones.
Fortunately, the burden on the healthcare system is set to ease as India’s military has started transporting critical supplies, including oxygen, across the country and plans to provide access to its medical facilities to citizens. Additionally, the government has transformed railway coaches and hotels to COVID-19 centers to increase hospital bed availability.
Ramping up vaccination, experts say, is the way out of this health and economic crisis and to minimize the impact of the impending third wave. But the vaccination program has encountered hitches, from vaccine shortage to the vaccination registration website frequently crashing.
Even though India is the world’s biggest producer of vaccines, it lacks the stocks to vaccinate its population, and this vaccine shortage is projected to last until July 2021.
While the government has assured citizens that “the system is performing without any glitches,” many have taken to social media expressing their displeasure on the website’s repeated crashes and their inability to register for the vaccination program.
The government plans to produce 2 billion vaccines by December, enough to vaccinate the majority of its population. However, organizations, including the International Monetary Fund, are skeptical about the Indian government’s ability to achieve this feat.
Deaths Likely Under-Reported
According to official data, only 11% of the 1.4 billion population have received the first dose, while just 3.4% have received both the first and second doses.
Statistics from Statista.com show India has 271.31 reported deaths per million, much below that of the United States and Brazil, at 1,819.01 and 2,309.42, respectively. That is hard to believe, looking at the level of devastation of the Indian healthcare system compared to the US.
Scenes from different hospitals in the country show patients in critical conditions arriving in ambulances and private vehicles. Patients that couldn’t find ICU beds are found lying on trolleys between beds or placed in the wards.
“We are completely full. The doctors and nurses are demoralized, they know they can do better, but they just don’t have the time,” said Dr. Sumit Ray, head of the unit, to Reuters. “No one takes a break.”
Experts and journalists agree that the figures are not a true reflection of the current state of COVID-19 in the country, considering poor access to testing, people’s hesitancy to get tested due to different factors, and reports of backlogs of test results.
The government has come under fire for its poor preparation for the second wave despite warnings from various experts. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s actions – the political rallies and allowing religious festivals – leading to the crisis has also been heavily criticized.
Following the outbreak of the second wave, the US has advised its citizens to leave the country and given its employees in India the option to voluntarily return to the United States.
What aid is arriving?
Support has been pouring in from around the world to India in the form of donations and aid for medical supplies and equipment to help the country deal with the COVID-19 crisis.
The country is bound to receive over $100 million worth of medical supplies from the US, including oxygen cylinders, life-saving drugs, diagnostic test kits, and masks, as announced by the White House.
President Joe Biden also plans to send the US batch of Oxford-AstraZeneca manufacturing supplies to India to increase the country’s vaccine-producing capacity.
Russia sent Sputnik V vaccine doses, 20 oxygen concentrators, 75 ventilators, 150 bedside monitors, and 22 tonnes of medicine and signed deals with India to manufacture over 850 million vaccine doses a year.
Shipments from the UK containing ventilators and oxygen concentrators arrived at Delhi airport last month. Thailand and Singapore’s shipments of empty cylinders have also arrived.
France plans to send oxygen containers and respirators, and production units, while Bangladesh will send 10,000 vials of antiviral medicines and 30,000 PPE kits.
