The pandemic “tsunami” of the past months hit and nearly collapsed India’s public health system on a large scale, in the period from mid-April to early June. In this context, thanks to careful preparation and sound resource investment strategy, southern Indian states like Tamil Nadu suffered less severe damage than other regions, according to the report. Financial Times . Prepare early for the bad scenario Jacob John, a doctor at a medical school in the city of Vellore, said the number of patients treated at the hospital where he worked at one time reached “uncontrollable thresholds”. At that time, the hospital’s 900 beds were filled, causing the facility to refuse to accept more patients and nearly drain its reserve of breathing air for treatment. But when a catastrophic second wave of disease hit Tamil Nadu and other southern states, places like Vellore were able to withstand the worst Covid-19 tragedy. The ability of these states to fight the epidemic is largely due to the planned and effective investment in the public health care system in the southern states. A woman has her blood pressure checked before getting a Covid-19 vaccine in Tamil Nadu, India. Photo: PTI. Experts say that in many other parts of India, the lack of investment and reconstruction for the public health system was exposed when the Covid-19 tsunami swept through. Tamil Nadu is recording about 22,000 coronavirus cases and nearly 500 deaths every day. Under that pressure, Tamil Nadu officials still managed to push back the wave of the epidemic. “The current situation is very difficult. We do not have enough intensive care beds and are forced to refuse to accept many patients,” said Dr. John. “I’m not saying we’re perfect, but when the wave is over, I’m sure the investments in the public health system will save lives.” Before the second Covid-19 storm made landfall, healthcare systems in many other parts of the country, including the capital New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, were nearly completely collapsed. whole. Many patients die from lack of oxygen while the crematorium is overloaded, causing some families to choose to let their bodies float in the river. New Delhi fell before the pandemic, the number of deaths increased sharply, overloading the crematoriums. Photo: Reuters. Although the southern states of India have also “tasteed” the Covid-19 tragedy, experts say that these localities are resilient to cope with the recent outbreak of the disease. “Thanks to a well-developed healthcare infrastructure, the situation in the southern states is not as shocking as in many other places,” said Ratan Jalan, founder of Medium Healthcare Consulting. India’s southern states account for about 250 million of the country’s nearly 1.4 billion population. Kerala and Tamil Nadu are leaders in healthcare, with indicators such as infant mortality rates consistently low. Except for the state of Karnataka, other parts of South India have abundant medical supplies and many medical colleges. The Sustainable Development Report released by the United Nations and government think tanks in early June also ranks the southern states as having the best public health care systems in India. Authorities in these states also issued a blockade order in May. The strategy helped reduce the number of new Covid-19 cases, temporarily controlling the spread of the pathogen. However, Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka and India’s tech hub, still has a higher number of SARS-CoV-2 infections than other major cities. According to Ravi Mehta, an emergency worker at Apollo Hospital in Bangalore, when the hospital set up a new treatment ward at the end of April, all 30 beds were empty in just 90 minutes. When the treatment area was replenished with 70 beds, it was completely empty in less than 3 hours. Although the pressure has now eased, the hospital’s intensive care unit is still full, and is now used to treat patients with serious complications. Resource disparity States like Maharashtra in western India are also highly rated for their ability to respond to the Covid-19 “tsunami”. However, no state in the west really fights the epidemic as effectively as in the south, according to Financial Times . Kerala, where India’s first Covid-19 case was detected in 2020, is a rare state in the west with many bright spots in disease response. During the first wave of the Covid-19 epidemic, Kerala health officials controlled the spread of the disease and brought the number of corona virus infections to zero in a few days in May 2020. The number of Covid-19 cases in Kerala increased to more than 40,000 cases per day in May, but quickly dropped to the threshold of 20,000 cases per day, according to the report. Financial Times . Experts say the authorities of Kerala and Tamil Nadu have tackled the crisis by building networks of healthcare workers to help sick people find treatment. They have also created strategic systems to distribute resources such as oxygen and oxygen tanks, preventing severe shortages. The high number of infections in the southern states of India and at the same time reflect widespread testing, provide a full picture of the epidemic situation. Medical staff in Kerala, India take samples to test for Covid-19. Photo: Indian Express. On the other hand, the fact that the southern states better control the epidemic also exposes the inequality between rich and poor in the world’s No. 2 epidemic center. In May, at least 20 patients at a hospital in rural Karnataka died from lack of oxygen. In Goa, the southern tourist hub, many patients died from inadequate breathing air. PV Ramesh, a doctor and former senior civil servant in Andhra Pradesh, a state in southeastern India, said the Covid-19 crisis will force the whole country to acknowledge the failure of the medical system. public economy of this country. “This outbreak is still seen as an oxygen supply crisis rather than a management crisis (by health officials), Mr. Ramesh said. “As the wave of disease subsides, people will return to normalcy,” Ramesh said. went back to business as usual and didn’t learn any lessons.” Bringing the ashes of unclaimed Covid-19 victims to the Ganges River Indian volunteers collect ashes from crematoriums to organize funerals for Covid-19 victims in Haridwar city.

Two weeks ago, just as dawn broke over the Ganges, a riverside resident discovered several bodies drifting into the shallows of the river most sacred to Indians. Darsan Nishad – a 35-year-old man working for a local environmental program – pulled the eight bodies out of the water. He then tied these bodies with sacks to take them away to check the cause of death. Finally, the unfortunate victims will be cremated – according to Hindu rites. “We don’t know where these bodies come from. We didn’t even know if they had any diseases,” said Nishad, pointing to the area where he and his colleagues had to carry out this difficult task. Hindus make offerings to the sacred Ganges River after scattering the ashes of their loved ones. Hundreds of bodies were found floating or buried in the river in May. Photo: Washington Post. Saddened by the experience, Nishad shared his belief in the Ganges, which Hindus revere as a sacred river. According to Hindu beliefs, anyone who has bathed in the river will be cleansed of all sins. “The river has great spiritual significance to us. Indians believe that if you dip yourself in this water even once, you will be protected for life,” said Nishad, standing a few feet from the crematorium in the river. “For us, the river is the goddess,” said Nishad. This is just a small number of hundreds of other bodies floating or buried in sand along the length of the river in the context that India suffered the second worst consequences in the world because of the Covid-19 pandemic. after America. Worried fisherman The mystery surrounding the bodies remains unanswered. Authorities have not been able to find out how many people have Covid-19 among those bodies. Many believe that some families have opted for extreme measures – dropping the bodies of loved ones in the Ganges – because they cannot afford to cremate them. Before the second wave of Covid-19 “swallowed” India, the cremation rite cost only 70 USD. However, the number has now risen to more than $400 – almost six times higher – since the end of April. In Sujabad – a large community that depends on the Ganges for a living – many people are currently without work. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused the loss of jobs for river boaters carrying pilgrims and tourists. With bodies constantly dropping into the river causing pollution, local fishermen are worried about their catch and fish stocks being affected. For many people, the source of fish on the sacred river has been a way of life for a long time. The Indian crematorium burns day and night. Photo: New York Times. According to people here, the most prosperous business at this time is providing wood for the crematorium. As of May 23, India recorded more than 26.2 million cases of Covid-19 and more than 295,000 deaths. The number of new infections per day in India has recently decreased, but the average number of deaths in the past 7 days has remained high, above 4,000 people per day. The “tsunami” of Covid-19 has put the Indian economy on the brink of collapse. Like the bodies found in the Ganges – whether they died from coronavirus, heart attacks or old age – residents of communities like Sujabad are falling victim to this virus. Government gets involved Images of floating bodies prompted authorities to step in. Patrol ships are deployed across more than 2,400 kilometers of the Ganges River. State and local governments have established a network of free cremation sites – providing firewood and inviting priests to perform Masses for families who cannot afford it. Hundreds of such crematoriums have been opened across Varanasi, the holy city on the banks of the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh state, and home to a series of steps leading down to the Ganges (called ghats). Usually, Hindus will gather in large numbers at ghats to bathe, baptize their children and scatter the ashes of the dead. However, now the ghats are uninhabited, while the crematoriums operate continuously day and night. In downtown Varanasi, officials have set up a Covid-19 “command center”. Here, thousands of staff will take calls from residents, check on patients, order ambulances for those in need of hospitalization and arrange cremation services. A large screen hung on the wall continuously displays the latest information on the number of hospital beds, oxygen supply and the number of new infections. Government employees patrol the Ganges River. Photo: Washington Post. Share with Washington Post , cleric Satindra Kumar in Varanasi could not hide his fatigue after long days of performing funeral rites. “I have performed the funeral rite 15 times in the past two days, most of the dead are patients with corona virus. People who don’t die from the disease also come here,” Kumar said. “The pandemic is so devastating! Everyone is afraid and suffering. I cannot stop what is happening, but I will continue to pray. I hope that will bring peace to the relatives of the deceased.” Even the poor still have to celebrate However, in rural areas, there is no similar service for the family of someone who has died of Covid-19 or other causes. Despite the extra cost, many people still make trips to the ghats to pray for their loved ones in accordance with Hindu custom. They believe that even with the added economic burden on their shoulders, they still have to bear to follow the ancestral traditions. Journalist of Washington Post witnessed a group of peasants reach out to one of Varanasi’s oldest ghats to perform funerals for three loved ones. Cremation platforms along the riverside. Photo: Getty. They prepare offerings consisting of pellets and spices, wrapped in large leaves under the supervision of a Hindu priest. After the bodies of three loved ones were blessed, the men stepped off the ghats, floated their offerings in the river, and began scattering the ashes. After that, besides the cremation fee, the group also had to pay the ceremony money for the ceremony just now. They anxiously counted every penny they had accumulated, plus the costs of barbers, photographers and gifts. They do not hesitate to pay expensive expenses to fulfill their religious obligations at a time of uncertainty, fear of an invisible and deadly force. “For generations, villagers have come here to perform the last rites of life,” said Lakshmi Singh, a farmer in his 60s. Bringing the ashes of unclaimed Covid-19 victims to the Ganges River Indian volunteers collect ashes from crematoriums to organize funerals for Covid-19 victims in Haridwar city.

To date, India has recorded more than 25 million cases and 275,000 deaths from Covid-19. However, many experts say the real number could be many times higher. On the riverbanks, many cremation pylons burned around the clock, many cremation sites had no space left. This phenomenon partly reflects the unprecedented number of deaths and has not been updated in official data. According to the BBC , behind the bodies floating in the river is a story of customs, poverty and a deadly pandemic. Many cremation pylons burn around the clock in India. Photo: Getty. Frighten The horrifying story in the state of Uttar Pradesh first came to light on May 10. The opening was the event of 71 bodies washed up on the riverbank in the village of Chausa in Bihar. Officials said some of the remains may have been leftover body parts that fell into the Ganges after cremations, but they suspect the bodies were dumped in the river. The police put a net across the water to prevent the same thing from happening. A day later, about 10 kilometers from Chausa, dogs and crows were seen swarming with dozens of decomposing bodies on the banks of a river in the village of Gahmar, in the Pradesh Ghazipur region of Uttar state. Locals said the body had been washed up on the embankment for several days. However, the authorities ignored their complaints about the stench until news of the corpses found downstream of Bihar made the news. Dozens of bodies swell and decompose, floating in the river. They were discovered by people when they went for a morning dip in India’s holiest river. Sheet Hindustan Police reported that 62 bodies had been recovered. Meanwhile, in Kannauj, Kanpur, Unnao and Prayagraj, the riverbanks are dotted with shallow graves. Shallow graves by the Ganges River. Photo: Getty. Videos sent to BBC from the banks of the Mehndi ghat in Kannauj shows a series of mounds in the shape of human corpses. Each of these mounds contained a body. At the nearby Mahadevi ghat, at least 50 bodies were found. Crematorium is overloaded Traditionally, Hindus will cremate the dead. However, many communities have a practice known as “Jal Pravah” – the practice of floating the bodies of children, unmarried women, or those who have died of an infectious disease or been bitten by a snake. Many poor people do not have money to cremate their loved ones, so they also wrap their bodies in white cotton cloth and drop them into the water. Sometimes bodies are tied to rocks to ensure they will sink to the bottom of the river, but many bodies are floated without the stones tied. In the time before the pandemic, corpses floating in the Ganges were not an uncommon sight. However, the number of bodies in the river is too much in recent times, still surprising many people. A journalist in Kanpur said the number of bodies in the river was proof of the “big disparity between the official death toll and the actual death toll related to Covid-19” in India. He said that from April 16 to May 5, the official reported number was 196 deaths in Kanpur, but data from seven crematoriums showed there were nearly 8,000 cremations. “All electric crematoriums are open 24/7 in April. Even so, there are still not enough furnaces to cremate bodies, so the government has allowed the use of wood on the outside grounds for cremation,” he said. to speak. “However, crematoriums only accept confirmed Covid-19 bodies from the hospital, while a very large number of people who died at home have not been tested. Families of the dead bring the bodies of their loved ones out. on the outskirts of the city or to neighboring districts like Unnao. When they can’t find wood or a place to cremate, they drop the bodies on the riverbed.” Cremation platforms along the riverside. Photo: Getty. Another journalist in Prayagraj also believes that many of the bodies in the river are those of Covid-19 patients who died at home without being tested, or poor people who can’t afford cremation. “It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “These people are someone’s son, daughter, brother, sister, father or mother. They deserve to be respected when they die. But their deaths are not even recorded – no one knows they died or is known. How to be buried? Burial from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m The discovery of graves and decomposing bodies, along with fears that the bodies could have contracted Covid-19 have sparked panic in villages along the river. Originating in the Himalayas, the Ganges is one of the largest rivers in the world. Hindus consider this river a sacred river, they believe that bathing in the Ganges will wash away sins and use this river water for religious ceremonies. In Kannauj, Jagmohan Tiwari, a 63-year-old resident, reported seeing “150-200 shallow graves” by the river. “The burial took place from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.,” he said. The discovery of the graves caused panic in the area. People worry that bodies buried on the ground will start to float in the river when it rains and the water level rises. On May 12, the state government banned the practice of “Jal Pravah” and provided support for poor families who could not afford cremation. Relatives of a victim stand near the riverbank while the body is cremated. Photo: Getty. In many places, the police used sticks to retrieve the body from the river and called on the boatman to bring the body to the shore. After being retrieved, the decomposed bodies are buried in pits or burned on a cremation pyre. Ghazipur district judge Mangala Prasad Singh said teams had been set up, patrolling the riverbanks and cremation grounds to prevent people from dumping bodies in rivers or burying them on the banks. Bringing the ashes of unclaimed Covid-19 victims to the Ganges River Indian volunteers collect ashes from crematoriums to organize funerals for Covid-19 victims in Haridwar city.

At the cremation site, where the fire was only temporarily extinguished late at night, loved ones had to wait for hours to say goodbye. The cremation scene was photographed, filmed, even broadcast live on social networks. These images will be sent to relatives in quarantine across India. They even appear on entire world news and newspapers, bringing India’s tragedy to a global audience. Fire ceremony participants must wear masks and protective gear. Photo: The New York Times. From the rooftops, local residents took pictures of the fire to show the world why they had to wear masks even indoors. Smoke and a strong smell of death, enveloping narrow alleys all day, even crept through closed windows, according to The New York Times. The cremation flame is a testament to the devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on India. Exhausted from cremation The Covid-19 virus spread too quickly in India. The country continuously records more than 400,000 new cases every day. Nowhere in the country is beyond the devastating “tsunami”. Every day about 300 official deaths are recorded in New Delhi. However, this number is not believed to reflect the reality. “Before the pandemic, I received six to eight bodies a day,” said Jitender Singh Shunty, founder of a volunteer cremation organization Seemapuri, east of New Delhi. Now, every day I have to hold a cremation ceremony for about 100 bodies. Through his organization Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sewa Dal, Mr. Shunty has provided free or low-cost cremation services to the poor for 25 years. As demand skyrocketed, Mr. Shunty’s full-time workforce encountered numerous difficulties. They had to build dozens of new crematoriums in the adjacent field. Mr. Shunty’s cremation center received 100 bodies a day. Photo: The New York Times. Mr. Shunty’s daily job is to help move bodies and arrange the location of his cremation. During a pandemic, he had to change his protective shirt, mask and gloves dozens of times a day. At night, he slept in his car because his wife and two sons had Covid-19. Crematorial staff are receiving special care in the hospital. “Our team is about 16 people. We are working day and night, ”he said. “It is only 8 am, but I have received 22 phone calls to confirm the body.” According to Hindu tradition, cremation is a frequently used method. They believe that cremation disrupts the association of the soul with the physical body. The eldest son will lead the funeral delegation and relatives will carry the body onto the funeral pyre. A Hindu monk, also known as pandit, will recite his last prayers before the fire is lit. The ash of the deceased will be scattered in the Ganges or another sacred river. Mourners will gather at the deceased person’s home to commemorate and conduct prayer rituals. Families usually collect the ash immediately to avoid confusion. Unclaimed ashes, Mr. Shunty said, are held for up to two months, after which they are scattered into the Ganges River. Separate birth and death In addition, the pandemic also deprives the deceased’s final rites and deprives relatives of their private space. Traditionally, relatives will gather to share the pain of loss. Now, the fear of infection keeps most loved ones away. Even many bodies were cremated with no one nearby. “My family members can’t even see those last moments,” said Mittain Panani, a 46-year-old businessman. Mr. Panani and his brother are the only two people who directly attended their father’s cremation in Mumbai. His mother is still hospitalized with Covid-19. “Even if you have money, power, influence, you can’t do anything in that moment. I feel really powerless, ”he said sadly. Relatives brought the body of Covid-19 patient to the cremation area. Photo: The New York Times. “Flames were rising from the funeral pyre, relatives wearing masks and protective clothing. The scene is like the end of the world, ”said Dimple Kharbanda, a film producer who returned to New Delhi to attend the cremation ceremony of his late father. She had to beg relatives, including aunts in the neighboring state, not to come to Delhi because of the risk of infection. “When someone in India dies, we get together and talk about them, their lives, their habits and the good things. However, at this point, we can’t even do that, ”said Poonam Sikri, Ms. Kharbanda’s biological aunt. “When I watched his cremation (Miss Kharbanda’s father) on the phone, it felt like I had lost a part of my body. I want to stroke his hair, rub his face and hug him one last time. But I can’t do it ”. For the families of Covid-19 victims, the cremation site is the final stop of a series of difficult trials. It ended a series of days dragging patients from hospital to hospital in search of a bed and struggling in line for oxygen. Last stop Before Darwan Singh’s body was taken to Seemapuri, his family did everything they could to save the 56-year-old breadwinner. His fever did not go away while the oxygen level in his blood dropped to a dangerously low level of 42%. For two days, his family could not find a hospital bed or an oxygen tank. His nephew, Kuldeep Rawat, said he was given oxygen for an hour before the hospital supplies ran out. The family brought Mr. Singh home at night. The next day, they had to wait another five hours in the parking lot of another hospital. Mr. Rawat said the family had to pay a bribe of about $ 70 to get a free bed in a public hospital. Unfortunately, Mr. Singh died overnight. According to Hindu tradition, cremation is believed to break the connection of the soul with the physical body. Photo: New York Times. With the Seemapuri cremation center overloaded, the hospital was unable to immediately hand over the body. On April 25, his body and five other people were taken to the cremation site. Mr. Rawat said he had to get in an ambulance to confirm his uncle’s identity. The family then took him inside the crematorium and had to wait 5 hours before it was his turn to bring his uncle to the pyre. Even the last stop also cost them a relatively large amount: 25 USD for the prayer meeting, 34 USD for wood, 14 USD for the pandit priest and 5 USD for the protective suit. Mr. Singh’s family could not even come to the funeral. Both his mother, wife, daughter and son were infected with Covid-19. Mr. Rawat feared that he would also be infected during the period of sending his uncle to the emergency room. “They have a hard time understanding what’s going on.” For the families living around the crematorium, the fire that burns all night and day is a constant reminder of Covid-19’s death that awaits them. In the Sunlight Colony, where shabby houses and flats lie with Seemapuri, smoke is so much that many people are forced to wear masks while indoors. Children are rinsed with hot water before going to bed and laundry is dried in the room. People living near cremators must wear masks even when indoors. Photo: The New York Times. Waseem Qureishi, a resident right next to the Seemapuri crematorium, said: “My kitchen is upstairs but I really can’t stand it inside. If the wind is headed towards my house, the situation is even worse. Anuj Bhansal, an ambulance driver who lives near the Ghazipur crematorium, also in eastern New Delhi, says he is very worried about his four children. He said every time the cremated body number reached 100 people, children in the neighborhood would run up a nearby garbage hill to see. “When the children watched the fire and smoke coming from the cremation site, they asked why it did not go out,” Mr Bhansal said sadly. “They have a hard time understanding what’s going on.” The chaplain’s account of the funeral for 150 Covid-19 patients before cremation Every day, Hindu cleric RamKaran Mishra performs a funeral for about 150 people who have died from Covid-19 at the Ghazipur crematory facility east of New Delhi, India.

Covid-19 shows that the future of the world is biological, not digital. (Source: CNN) Millions of people around the world are viewing images of desperation in many parts of India as infection rates exceed 300,000 cases per day. Reports show severe hypoxia in the South Asian country with a double-strain variable, accompanied by images of corpses waiting on pavements, when crematoriums become overwhelmed, even. in the capital New Delhi. At the end of March, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a draft report on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic with findings that many have come to expect: SARS-CoV-2 virus may have been Spread from animals to humans. It can be said that the uninteresting cause has caused the biggest global turmoil in a century, and just as it has caused many earlier pandemics in history: Human card in nature. At the same time, the world may be coming to the end of an era of digital hype. Sharp warning For years, it has been said that digital technology will lead the world to a future without scarcity. Yet the reality of the pandemic is a sharp warning about how the real world can reverse fantastical, unrealistic delusions. Every new technological advance promises a fundamental transformation of society, eliminating inefficiencies and inequality and empowering people through division of labor. Blockchain technology, artificial intelligence and 3D printing technology are hailed as the leading flags bringing about major changes in lifestyles and working, not only in developed countries but also in underdeveloped countries. lice in countries with no basic living conditions. The belief in technology may even be reflected in the Western response to the pandemic. Instead of considering the social commitment citizens engage in – placing the collective interest above individual rights by requiring masks and implementing other restrictions – and having a strong public health response, rapidly to control the Covid-19 outbreak, Western countries were again hoping to develop vaccines as a last resort, and at the cost of large-scale economic disruption and commodity disruption. hundred thousand people died. In the US alone, a study has shown that hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved during a pandemic if previous regulations on blockades, masking and social segregation were strictly enforced. . The SARS-CoV-2 virus has caused global chaos because of its ability to enter the human body through biological transmission and disrupt the functioning of organs in the body. Vaccines that prevent viruses are seen as a mechanism that promotes the human body’s natural response to infection. If humans want to avoid another global health disaster, humans need to restrain their growth, stop attacking natural and biological systems based on the argument that all other living entities must be subordinated. for human development. The need for economic development has destroyed the natural world so much that disasters such as the Covid-19 pandemic are more likely to occur as population and human greed lead to self-exploitation. course more. The time has come to stop these attacks. Maintain integrity and resonance Human survival depends on maintaining the integrity and resonance of natural systems and internal biological processes. That includes habitats, objects that enter the human body (pollutants and viruses), things people consume (water, air and food), and the biological effects of waste produced by children. maker. During the early months of the pandemic, reports showed that the Earth was benefiting from reduced greenhouse gas emissions, as the majority of the middle and upper classes could study remotely and work from home. However, the switch to working from home is not without consequences for the environment. The more secluded lifestyles have to depend on people who work in the real world, produce and process food, feed the groceries and deliver food to people at home. Goods ordered online still have to be transported by means of transport such as ships, vehicles and need to be delivered by the delivery person. Meanwhile, infrastructure in the real world has been deeply affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Essential workers around the world, whether in hospitals, meat packers in the US, construction sites in Singapore or glove manufacturers in Malaysia, have all been hit hard by the boom. Play by Covid-19. This suggests that we not only need to limit encroachment on the natural world, but also need to invest more in basic protective measures (also known as “guaranteed resilience”) such as supply. safety and assurance of food, water, sanitation, housing, a good public health system and access to energy. Forecasts suggest that the human population will peak 10 billion by 2064, and greater pandemic risks will accompany other man-made threats, from climate change and biodiversity loss to Vulnerable food systems and limited available land. Digital technologies can play a role in mitigating and countering such threats only when people are imbued with the fact that human existence is fragile and fully dependent on a suitable biosphere. The sooner people realize that truth, the sooner people can be sure that technology development efforts are put into ideas that really help people, and not in utopian plans. should come from the narrow definition of human evolution. (according to global-inst.com)

The deadly “tsunami” called COVID-19 is sweeping across the Indian subcontinent, leaving tragedies that scare the world. With each passing day, India has recorded more tragic records of the number of people infected with COVID-19 as well as the number of deaths from this deadly virus since the outbreak of the epidemic in China more than a year. before. For days in a row, the number of people infected with COVID-19 has reached a world record, exceeding 300,000, while the number of deaths steadily exceeds a terrible threshold of 3,000 people per day. This South Asian nation’s health system showed signs of not tolerating the aggressive attack of COVID-19. Hospitals refused to accept patients with COVID-19 because they were completely overloaded. Newspapers reported that patients who reached the hospital gate died there because they were not admitted. Many hospitals deplete their oxygen supply, causing the death of patients to be abnormally high. Photo: LG In particular, hospitals such as Gorakhpur have had to make the painful option of withdrawing the ventilators of elderly patients who have not improved after a long period of treatment. to give oxygen to young patients with a greater chance of life. The crematoriums were nearly melted down by not turning off the fire for 24 hours a day. And even when running at full capacity, the crematorium could not handle the number of corpses caused by COVID-19, causing people to organize cremation in open areas. The pictures of the crematoriums burning red fire day and night are like scenes from horror movies about hell. The world is horrified by the tragic scene, at the dire consequences caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The frightening thing is that it seems that these deadly scenes are not yet the culmination of the pandemic. Many experts make gloomy predictions about the number of people infected and dying in India will continue to rise and peak in the days of May 2021. Meanwhile, the lack of oxygen continues to put enormous pressure on the oxygen plants. Once considered a drugstore in the world, a source of vaccines against COVID-19 for other countries, now India itself is in a shortage of vaccines, having to import … All signal a gloomy future before the epidemic in this South Asian country. Wrong chain Because a country that only a few weeks ago confidently thought that it had entered the final stage of the war against COVID-19 and successfully controlled a pandemic, is now suddenly engulfed in a “tsunami”. This death? In March 2020, India is one of the rare countries in the world implementing a national blockade to fight pandemics, a harsh measure not easy to take for a country with 1.3 billion people. This measure may have had serious consequences for the Indian economy as well as the well-being of the people. However, for the Indian authorities at that time, the threat of COVID-19 was the greatest one, existing and must be prevented at all costs, from spreading it. This strong measure has yielded positive results. The number of deaths is much lower than experts predicted. The number of daily infections also plummeted after reaching a peak of 100,000 per day in September 2020. It was at that time that began a series of mistakes that would cost India a hefty price point later. The first is the erroneous belief that India can achieve a state of public immunity to easily overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. This belief stems from studies that suggest that the majority of Indians, except for the rich and middle-class, from working outdoors a lot, absorb a large amount of vitamin D, thus increasing the body’s ability. resistant to viruses. These theorists claim that the low mortality in the late 2020 period supports this point. But, they have not learned a valuable lesson from countries like Sweden or the UK, which have had time to misplace their beliefs in community immunity and thus have suffered painful consequences. pain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. After a period of social “relax” with belief in community immunity and as a result, the number of infections and the death rate skyrocketed compared to other countries with the same social conditions, gender. These countries are forced to formally admit mistakes in terms of policies, leading to tragic consequences for society. The mistakes made by these countries in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate that in critical moments, the right policy is needed and is more valuable than a single dose of vaccine. fabricated). If the policy is wrong, not only a few individuals but the whole society will have to pay the price. But, the second mistake is the main cause of the current humanitarian tragedy in India. Until early 2021, the Indian authorities acted as if the COVID-19 pandemic ceased to exist. Large rallies are allowed. In particular, despite the risks of transmitting COVID-19 in a crowded environment, Indian officials have allowed millions of believers to participate in religious festivals with the policy of “belief in God will win. fear of viruses ”. A typical example of this phenomenon is the Kumbh Mela festival, one of the holiest Hindu pilgrimage ceremonies that take place on the banks of the Ganges River with millions in attendance. Most of the millions of people gathered in this place without masks, without spacing, turning such festivals into “super infectious” events, the ideal environment for the virus to spread at breakneck speed. , sowing invisible death would turn tragedy for days afterward … For whom the Bell Tolls! The world has not underestimated the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Until the tragedy struck, the prospect of a global catastrophe stemming from a pandemic raging in India emerged. Considered to be the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, India has participated in the vaccine supply chain for poor, developing countries around the world. Currently, preliminary statistics show that up to 92 developing countries depend on supplies of vaccines from India. The COVID-19 pandemic broke out in India on a large scale, creating a favorable environment for the mutant virus to form new strains. By the time India was caught in the midst of COVID-19, which led to a shortage of vaccines and a slow pace of vaccination, it was natural that Indian authorities tightened exports of COVID vaccines. -19 abroad. Before the outbreak of the pandemic, India joined the COVAX program to provide equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine. Until the COVID-19 “tsunami” hit, India froze vaccine exports, including for the COVAX program, to save vaccines for use to meet domestic demand. As a result, the worldwide supply chain of vaccines is under enormous pressure; At least 92 poor countries that received vaccines from the COVAX program were severely affected. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India’s withdrawal from the program to worry about domestic issues caused COVAX to lack 90 million doses of vaccine planned for 60 low-income countries in March and April. Another, more significant concern is that the widespread outbreak of COVID-19 in India, with many untreated people, has been a favorable environment for the virus to mutate, creating new strains, which are more virulent, and “smarter” to adapt to human-made vaccines. It is also worth mentioning that new variants of the COVID virus in India have been discovered and have entered dozens of countries around the world, posing a big challenge to the global health network. for example, countries with weak health systems themselves. Realizing those risks, the world has frantically rushed in to help India overcome the aftermath of the pandemic. The US, UK, and United Arab Emirates (UAE) are rushing to send breathing machines and vaccine materials, while a number of other countries have also pledged to assist India to overcome the crisis. France, New Zealand and Spain pledged to share some of their dosages with the COVAX program to help reduce vaccine shortage tensions for poor countries due to India’s withdrawal from the program. Even China, which is in a state of border dispute with India, has announced it will send the vaccine to its neighbor, but did not say how much and when to send it. It seems that, in the meantime, helping India is also helping me! Please do not ask who is the bell for your soul, the bell for your soul!
Yen Ba

Jeetu, local pharmacist and volunteer doctor in Chogath village, Gujarat state, on May 9. Photo: CNN According to CNN (USA), India’s second COVID-19 wave has devastated major cities and urban centers, depleting hospitals of oxygen and medicine. Meanwhile, in rural areas and remote villages, doctors and clinics are even rarer, leaving residents fighting for their own lives without care. Chogath Village is a rural community in the western state of Gujarat, home to about 7,400 residents, according to the latest census in 2011. Earlier this week, pharmacist Jeetu said there were between 500 and 600 schools. with COVID-19, while deaths also spiked. However, there are no doctors or medical facilities in the nearest village and city more than an hour away. There are medical stations in a number of neighboring towns, but these small facilities also have no longer beds and essential supplies. Amid a spike in morbidity and mortality, Mr. Jeetu was forced to take on the role of a volunteer doctor, using his experience as a pharmacist to provide oxygen and prescribe medicine to the people. . “No one here, no medical center, no doctors, no nurses,” he said. “There are no medical facilities in this village. So I have to deal with the situation in the way I find the best fit.” Dinesh Makwana and his father, Mr. Jivraj, from Chogath village in Gujarat state, India, May 9. Photo: CNN India is coping with an ongoing health crisis everywhere from the capital New Delhi to the smallest villages and towns. The second wave of COVID-19 epidemic has infected millions of people across the country over the past month, with thousands dying every day. As of May 12, India has recorded over 23.3 million cases since the outbreak of the pandemic, being the second most severely affected country in the world, behind only the US, according to University data. Johns Hopkins. In Chogath, the lack of medical assistance forced the desperate villagers to travel to the surrounding towns in the hope of finding a hospital bed. Dinesh Makwana, from Chogath village, said he tried to send his father with COVID-19 to four different hospitals in neighboring towns in the state of Gujarat, but all had no vacancies. With no other choice, Makwana had to bring his father, who had been diagnosed with a serious illness, back to the village. “We were shocked by the second wave. The whole village was shocked, everyone was scared,” Makwana said. “I know many people in the village who died from COVID-19. I thought that my father wouldn’t make it either.” A volunteer cremates people in Chogath village, Gujarat, on May 9. Photo: CNN Pharmacist Jeetu, affectionately known by the villagers as “Jeetu”, gave Makwana’s father some medicine to help stabilize his health. Makwana’s sister and mother are also infected with the SARS-CoV2 virus. Located on the veranda of the house, Makwana’s mother gasped, next to a picture of Hindu gods hanging high on the wall. “I worry about my family,” said Mr. Jivraj, Makwana’s father. “If I die, my family doesn’t know how I will live. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m worried about my wife.” Mr. Girjashankar, 70, helped the villagers cremate the bodies. He filled the tractors with wood and brought them into the village to make a funeral pyre. The village usually records only about 30 people dead each year but over the past month they have cremated 90 bodies. Some families have lost many members because of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. A man was vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccine in Guwahati, India on May 8. Photo: CNN Some experts and government committee members think the second wave of infections may be nearing a peak, meaning that daily new infections will soon drop. However, high mortality is predicted to persist throughout the month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has worked to respond to this crisis by sending oxygen sources to many states and distributing medical supplies from abroad. But supply shortages mean most of the support will be shipped to the most densely populated cities with the highest number of infections, leaving villages like Chogath on their own when SARS-CoV-2 virus. attack of households. “The village doesn’t get government support, there are no doctors, there is no way to go to major hospitals,” said Girjashankar. “No one is looking at this place, there are no government employees to support us.” Jeetu said he was “very angry” because the village lacked help from the authorities. “But what can we do?” He said. “We don’t have a solution, the people here are very poor.” Meanwhile, the villagers have no choice but to wait for help and pray they will recover. “All the villagers are scared. For the past 15 to 20 days, no one comes out of the house. Everyone was very worried,” Makwana said.

Victim Mary Reeser and the scene of the body burned to ash, leaving only a portion of the leg left. Photo: ATI On July 2, 1951, Pansy Carpenter, Mary Reeser’s landlord, stopped by the tenant’s apartment to send a telegram. When Pansy knocked on the door, no one answered. She put her hand on the doorknob and felt unusually hot, so she called the police. Police immediately went to the apartment at 1,200 Cherry Street (St. Petersburg town, Florida, USA) when he discovered that Marry Reeser, 67 years old, had died in a mysterious fire. Reports say the victim’s body was burned to ashes by a “white” flame – a color displaying temperatures between 1,300-1,500 degrees Celsius, equivalent to that in a crematorium. The victim’s body was almost completely ashes, leaving only one leg left, with the sandals intact, and no trace of carbon black. A part of Reeser’s spine and skull were also found at the scene. Although the apartment was still very warm and smoky when the police arrived, most of the furniture was still intact. Only plastic objects placed near the chair of Mrs. Reeser were melted and deformed. The carpet had a scorch mark. Most of the chair where the victim was sitting burned, but the wall behind that was not cracked or scorched. The rest of the room seemed unaffected by the fire that burned Mary Reeser. The sheets nearby are also not burnt, damaged, or even dirty. The scene of a mysterious fire in the apartment of Mary Reeser. Photo: ATI It takes about 1,600 degrees Celsius to heat for 3 or 4 hours to cremate a body. Therefore, the incident has made the authorities confused. Due to the mysterious circumstances of the case, it is suspected that Mrs. Reeser was a victim of spontaneous human combustion. It is when a person ignites their own flame from a chemical reaction inside their body, without any apparent ignition from the outside heat source. Although there have been documents about the human body igniting itself as early as 1663, not all scientists are convinced by it. Sheriff Cass Burgess was the detective investigating the Reeser case at the time. “This fire is too strange a thing,” he told reporters. Apartment diagram where the “ashen woman” case took place. The fire location is close to the kitchen, opposite the bed is still intact. Photo: thedeadhistory On 7/7/1951, Burgess and his team sent the evidence box from the victim’s apartment to the FBI laboratory (in Washington DC) for chemical analysis. Some of the evidence included ash, shoes, part of the carpet, mortar from the walls, pieces of fibers suspected from the victim’s nightgown, fragments of bone, and remains of the chair Reeser sat on when she died Fire…. The public is also very attentive to the case. Investigator Ed Silk said at least 15 amateur detectives called him to come up with their theories. The detective team released a statement saying it was a “accidental death from unexplained fire”. That doesn’t mean they are concluding the investigation, but just to help organize the burial of the victim, Burgess explained. Meanwhile, the FBI determined that Mary Reeser’s death was not caused by self-ignition. However, the incident is still a mystery. The FBI believes that Mary Reeser’s own body fat that fueled the fire that burned her could have come from smoking a cigarette and falling asleep. Ms. Reeser was set ablaze and “as soon as the body caught fire, almost complete destruction occurred from the victim’s own adipose tissue”. It is true that human adipose tissue is very flammable, and even easier in fat people. And Reeser is a huge woman, weighing 77kg. Investigators examine the crime scene. Photo: ATI The FBI’s explanation also has some basis, but it provides only partial explanation, as there are still some anomalies. For example, a stack of newspapers lined up next to the victim’s chair is still intact, not even scorched. Dr. Wilton M. Krogman, a professor of physical anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, an experienced fire researcher, disagrees with the FBI’s conclusions. Mr. Krogman has written about all five deaths he investigated in the past. “I cannot imagine such a complete cremation without burning the apartment at all,” the professor wondered. Some other explanations are given one after another, such as lightning, explosives … However, that night there was no lightning at St. Petersburg. The test sample of the evidence from the scene also showed no signs of any gasoline or flammable substance. After an investigation went nowhere, the police finally concluded the cause was “a forgotten cigarette”. However, the question from here is, will someone die from being unable to wake up even while on fire? If Mrs. Reeser was awake, why couldn’t the housekeeper Pansy hear the screams? Finally, after exactly 70 years, the death of the “ashen woman” remains a mystery that challenges investigators.

The morgue and crematorium are operating at full capacity, but still not enough to meet demand when the epidemic storm swept the country. Air fares and demand for private jets abroad have skyrocketed in India over the past few days. Photo: Reuters On April 26, the Worldometers page reported that the number of new infections in India in the past 24 hours reached 354,531 people, the 5th consecutive day setting a world record for the number of cases per day. The total number of deaths due to the epidemic is currently 195,116, an increase of 2,806 from a day earlier. In New Delhi alone, it is estimated that one person per 4 minutes from the virus dies. Many countries vowed to impose travel restrictions on tourists from India. Negative developments have caused wealthy people in the world’s second-most populous country to rush to find a way to catch the last flight or take a private jet to leave the country, before “banning” orders. effective. According to Gulf News, one of their favorite destinations is the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is only a short distance from India and often has hundreds of flights to and from each day. The UAE has announced a ban on visitors originating from India for 10 days from April 25. The price list listed on the websites shows that the fare for one-way commercial flights from Mumbai to Dubai on April 23-24 is about 80,000 rupees (over $ 1,000), 10 times more than normal . Fares for the New Delhi – Dubai route are more than 50,000 rupees (approximately 700 USD), 5 times more than a week ago. The Economic Times newspaper on April 23 quoted a spokesperson for the Indian aircraft rental service company, revealed that the need to rent a private jet was “terribly escalating”. Only on April 24, the company has 12 flights to Dubai and all flights are full. Another private jet carrier, Enthral Aviation, said the company was also overwhelmed by hundreds of bookings in recent days. That forced the airline to hire more planes from abroad to meet demand. The cost of renting a 13-seater aircraft from Mumbai to Dubai is US $ 38,000 and a 6-seater aircraft for the same itinerary is US $ 31,000. To save money, some people team up to rent planes together. Enthral Aviation also received a few requests to Thailand, but the most booked destination is still Dubai. According to the Sunday Times, at least eight private jets from India arrived in the UK on April 24 before London imposed a ban on entry to the South Asian country. The day before, fares for one-way commercial flights from Mumbai or New Delhi to the UK capital were around 100,000 – 150,000 rupees ($ 1,337 to 2,007), double the normal price, but also ran out of space. . Seats on commercial flights from India to the US over the weekend are still available, but prices are generally double as usual.

For many consecutive days, the world media has been flooded with heartbreaking information and images from today’s most devastating pandemic hotspot. Many patients in India die while waiting for their beds, oxygen supplies depleted in hospitals leading to tragic deaths beyond imagination. “India experienced its worst day because of Covid-19” became the headline used by many newspapers day in and day out. Photo: Reuters. After surpassing the US daily record for the first time on April 22, with 315,000 new cases, India has continuously set new records in the past few days. Photo: Reuters. India is suffering from the darkest chapter of the pandemic. Bodies were piled up in crematoria. Many cremation facilities operate non-stop, staff here say they get almost no rest. Photo: Reuters. In Hinduism, cremation is traditionally the most important part of funeral rites as these religious believers believe that the body must be cremated in order for the soul to transcend. Photo: Reuters. On April 29, the country recorded 379,257 new cases of Covid-19 and 3,645 people died from the pandemic. To date, the number of Covid-19 cases in India has reached 18.38 million, of which 204,832 died, according to the Ministry of Health of India. In the capital New Delhi, 27 temporary crematoriums were built at the Sarai Kale Khan crematorium. Dozens of other rigs are being added in a nearby park. Officials are also looking for more space near the city’s Yamuna River, according to the Guardian. Trees in the park were cut down to make a pyre. Photo: Reuters. Experts fear the actual number of cases in India could be up to 30 times higher, which is more than half a billion cases, according to CNN. The country’s daily death toll is expected to continue to rise through mid-May, according to predictive models from the University of Washington Medical Metrology and Evaluation Institute in the United States. The death toll could reach more than 13,000 a day, more than four times the current daily death toll, according to projections. Photo: Reuters. Jitender Singh Shanty is doing more than 100 cremations a day at a crematory in east New Delhi. “If more bodies are received, we will cremate the streets. There are no more vacancies here, ”said Shanty. Photo: Reuters. An employee in protective clothing is digging a grave to bury the victim of Covid-19’s death in Gauhati, India. Photo: AP. In city cemeteries such as New Delhi, which records the highest number of illnesses each day, ambulances line up waiting for the body to be cremated. The burial place was slowly shrinking in the cities, the flames burning through the night. Photo: Getty. India’s “fall” is believed to have stemmed from many causes such as lack of preparation, neglect of epidemic prevention, lack of medical equipment, and a rapidly spreading new strain. Photo: Reuters. “No New Delhi has ever seen such a scene. The bodies of 5-year-old children, 15-year-olds, and 25-year-old youth were burned. Even newlyweds are the same. It’s heartbreaking, ”Jitender Singh Shunty, a nonprofit medical provider, told Reuters. In the photo is a mass cremation of the victims of Covid-19 death that took place at a site in New Delhi, India on April 22. Photo: Reuters. Crowds of people also play a huge role in the spread of the virus in India. Blockade and quarantine restrictions are believed to have been lifted too soon in the world’s second most populous country. Residents are allowed to organize major parades. Hindu festivals attract tens of millions of pilgrims. These people often gather in cramped locations without protection. Pictured is the scene of Indians dancing during the Holi Spring Festival in Prayagraj city, Uttar Pradesh state on March 29. Photo: AP. Millions of voters still vote in the final stages of elections in West Bengal state, despite the record-rising deaths and infections caused by Covid-19. In the photo is the scene of people waiting in line to vote at the polls on April 29. Photo: AFP. Countries have already begun to take measures to help India. The White House on April 28 said it would provide $ 100 million in aid to India, including 1,000 medical oxygen cylinders, 15 million N95 masks and one million Covid-19 rapid test kits. The US is lifting a ban on sending raw materials abroad, enabling India to produce more AstraZeneca vaccines. Photo: AP. The 105-year-old man ‘defeated’ Covid-19 in India Dhenu Umaji Chavan (105) and his wife (95) contracted Covid-19 in March. Both were discharged earlier this month after being treated at a hospital in Maharashtra state.

The body of the patient Covid-19 is piled up in a crematory in New Delhi, where every four minutes, someone dies from a pandemic. Someone brought the body and left it. At the Ghazipur village crematory in eastern New Delhi, bodies were brought, one after the other. The amount of bodies was so great that ambulances and trucks transporting the dead blocked an entire road, Guardian described on April 30. Before the pandemic happened, in Ghazipur crematory staff’s memory, there was only one time that it was filled with space in a day. But now, sometime early in the morning, this place has received 150 bodies, while the maximum capacity is 38 bodies. Crematorial staff have to expand the scope of operations to parking lots but also cannot meet all demand. In the Indian capital, the second wave of Covid-19 infections is still raging with no sign of slowing down. On April 30, Delhi recorded a record number of 395 deaths and 24,235 new infections. Across India, the total number of new infections during the day was unprecedentedly high with 386,693 cases. Someone brought the body and left it Cremators in India are rushing to increase their capacity to handle 1,000 cremations a day. It is at these cremations that the destruction of Covid-19 in Delhi is being most evident. In 30 years of helping cremate the dead, Sunil Kumar Sharma, head of the Ghazipur village crematorium, said she had never thought of such a scene. “Too many people died. I have a feeling if this situation continues, there will be no one in Delhi, ”Sharma said. Normally, the body of a Covid-19 patient must be handled according to a rigorous procedure. But according to Sharma, corpses from hospitals are often not covered with protective cloths, putting cremators at risk of exposure. Some families even try to hide the death of a loved one from Covid-19. “The situation here is terrible and terrible,” said Mr. Sharma. “We have to work 20 hours a day, very tiring. My spirit seemed to have broken at the surroundings. Now there are people who bring the body and leave it, so we have to perform the ceremony to save some face for the deceased. According to the Hindu and Sikh beliefs of the Indians, a person cannot enter the door of heaven if their body is cremated without the watcher’s presence and keeping the fire on the pyre. Every day, Sharma’s crematorium consumes 60 tons of wood. “Every night, I worry about how to dispose of the body delivered tomorrow,” Mr. Sharma said. “What if it is beyond our capabilities?”. Suffering covers everywhere With thousands of recently cremated bodies, the air around Ghazipur crematorium was thick black smoke. Scattered around the ash-gray crematoriums left the day before were some offerings: mangoes, pomegranates, and orange flowers. On a nearby ambulance, a woman in a dark green sari was mumbling her prayers. In the car with her was the body of her husband, who had just died that morning because of Covid-19. The widow tried to place a red handshake on her husband’s body but was gently pushed away by a man in a protective suit to transport the body. The air around Ghazipur crematorium was thick black smoke from thousands of recent cremations. Photo: Shutterstock. Another man, Ajay Gupta, cried bitterly while the body of his brother, Ram, was placed on the crematorium. Just last week, Ram received treatment from the hospital for breathing problems. Ram’s illness had been in remission at first. I can even video call you from the hospital bed. But when the hospital ran out of oxygen, Ram did not survive. “Just a few days ago the nurse told us he would be fine,” Gupta said. Gupta is also a victim of the emerging black market in Delhi. It sells oxygen and drugs like Remdesivir to desperate families like Gupta at exorbitant prices. According to Gupta, after listening to the doctor, he used the last coin to buy Remdesivir for his brother at the black market for 630,000 rupees (about 8,500 USD), 10 times higher than normal. However, the effectiveness of Remdesivir Covid-19 is still questionable. “I felt like everything had collapsed,” Gupta said. Relatives wearing medical protective clothing deliver the body of a patient recently lost from Covid-19 in the crematory village of Ghazipur, east of Delhi. Photo: Shutterstock. Krishnan Pal, 48, who sells snacks in Delhi, is also one of those who died after repeatedly being rejected by the hospital due to overload. Pal cousin Kai Charan Kashap said they knocked on the doors of every hospital in Delhi but were unable to find an empty bed. After that, Pal was transported by his family to Agra, a city in the adjacent state of Uttar Pradesh. The hospital here still has empty beds but there is no oxygen left. In the end, Pal died on his way to Bareilly, a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh. “People are dying in the middle of the street because they can’t breathe,” said Kashap in a choked sob while waiting for his brother’s body to be transported from the morgue. Vaccine is seen as the way out of the crisis Many believe that the vaccine is the only long-term way to help India get out of the corona virus crisis. But on April 30, authorities in some parts of Delhi said plans to vaccinate people aged 18 and over had been delayed indefinitely due to lack of supply. The announcement comes just a day before the expanded immunization program is scheduled to be rolled out in Indian courts. Shortages such as in the capital Delhi are also common across this South Asian country. An immunization center in Mumbai posted “no vaccinations for the next three days” on April 30. Photo: Reuters. Delhi Prime Minister Arvind Kejriwal said authorities would inject the vaccine “as soon as possible”. But some private clinics in Delhi said the vaccine is not expected to arrive for at least another month or even two. During that time, the crematory and cemetery in Delhi will continue to suffer the deadly pressure that engulfs the city every day. At the Ghazipur crematory, after sunset, all crematoriums will be lit up at the same time. Flames flared in the screams of heat and pain. Tomb diggers work non-stop in India Tomb diggers work 24 hours a day to bury those who have died from Covid-19. Their shift did not stop amid the second wave of Covid-19 in India.

Last week, India’s Health Minister Harsh Vardhan affirmed that the Covid-19 death rate in this country is “at the lowest in the world”. The statement of the head of the medical industry is in stark contrast to the series of shocking images and stories of cremations burned day and night due to overloaded bodies, patients dying on the road due to lack of breathing. gas, according Guardian . Question of concealing data of the dead? Official records of the Indian authorities show that the number of people infected and fatal has increased continuously. On May 1, the South Asian country experienced another record-breaking day with 401,993 new cases and 3,523 deaths from Covid-19. But health experts have the same view that the official number does not fully reflect the size of the number of deaths caused by Covid-19 in India. At this time, because medical facilities are overloaded and lack medical supplies, many patients cannot be hospitalized and die at home, even without adequate testing. Meanwhile, the local authorities were accused of not making accurate statistics, even hiding the actual death toll in the area where they were responsible. Relatives stand by when the dead body is cremated. Photo: Reuters. In the past month, in the city of Karnataka, Bangalore – where the number of infections has been among the fastest growing in the country – the number of corpses registered for cremation with Covid-19 is twice as high as the number of deaths recorded by the authorities. The information concealment charge is particularly notable in Uttar Pradesh, where the state government is governed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata (BJP) party. Adityanath, governor of Uttar Pradesh, insisted that the state had no shortage of oxygen, and threatened to prosecute anyone who spread panic information. Authorities Uttar Pradesh denied allegations of information hiding. The truss burned day and night In the Muzaffarnagar city of Uttar Pradesh state, data are available from the weekly newspaper Observer The collection revealed the discrepancy between the local authorities’ death statistics and the number of bodies cremated at city cremation facilities and cemeteries. Official data recorded only 10 deaths from Covid-19 in the last four days of April. But according to Ajay Kumar Agarwal, owner of a city cremation facility, that is only an odd number compared to the bodies burned. burned at this facility every day. “Normally we cremate 3 bodies per day. But in the past 10 days, the number of cremated bodies has increased many times. There are days 18, some days 20, then 22 and 25. In the past 10 days, not yet.” we have less than 12 bodies every day, 90% of which are corona deaths, “said Agarwal. Mr. Agarwal’s cremation facility only had seven crematoriums, so the staff had to cremate the body on the ground. Some of the bodies were sent to another facility 35 kilometers from the city. The pyre burned day and night in India. Photo: Reuters. Mr. Agarwal accused local authorities of publishing “inaccurate” data, denying the possibility that the city has experienced no days, or that only one or two people died of Covid-19 in the past week. . “The authorities have not released the exact death figures. I don’t understand why they are hiding it. Maybe they don’t want people to panic,” Agarwal said. Similar comments were made by Sanjay Mittal, an employee at another cremation facility in Muzaffarnagar. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. We set the crematorium on fire from dawn to dusk,” Mittal said. Before the pandemic, Mittal’s cremation facility handled about 5 bodies a day. But on April 27, they received 21 bodies. On April 28, the number of bodies decreased to 15, before once again increasing to 19 on April 29. “It is noon now, and we have already got 12 bodies. I don’t know how much more will it be by the end of the day,” Mittal said on April 30. The number of bodies taken for burial has also increased sharply in the Muslim cemetery in Muzaffarnagar. “Before the corona virus, we buried 2-3 bodies a week, but now it is 6-7 bodies a day. Only three of them come from the hospital, the rest are either dead at home or not tested,” Mr. Abdul Quadir, curator, said. Government data show that Muzaffarnagar has a very low rate of testing. On April 27, the whole city did not conduct tests. On April 29, only 561 people were tested, all positive for corona virus. The actual number of deaths could be 3 times higher An unnamed doctor from the Medical Association in Uttar Pradesh state said that many people die from pneumonia, pulmonary fibrosis – typical symptoms of severe form Covid-19. “We have to accept that the death toll from corona virus is much higher than the official statistics. The bodies we see at the crematorium are mostly self-medicating at home, and they die.” The number of deaths like this is very high, but most of them have not been recorded. The rate of testing here is much lower than the need, “the doctor said. Murad Banaji, the mathematician who modeled the plague in India, said the numerous streams of evidence suggest that the understatement of deaths from disease is a serious problem. This expert believes that the number of deaths in India is at least 3 times higher than the official statistics. The conclusion is based on calculations from major cities like Mumbai, where during the first outbreak of the epidemic he calculated the number of “excess deaths” compared to the annual number of deaths. Mass cremation area in New Delhi. Photo: Reuters. This calculation could put the number of Covid-19 deaths in Mumbai from 13,000 to about 21,000. Banaji stressed that in less developed rural areas, such as in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, with limited medical facilities, Covid-19 deaths are not recorded “perhaps much larger than in cities like Mumbai “. The consequences of inaccurate statistics on the number of deaths can be very serious. It will affect the effective allocation of resources, limiting the ability to develop a suitable immunization strategy to help prevent future outbreaks. “If we don’t have data to understand what’s going on in the current pandemic, how can India prepare for the future?” Mr. Banaji said. The chaplain’s account of the funeral for 150 Covid-19 patients before cremation Every day, Hindu cleric RamKaran Mishra performs a funeral for about 150 people who have died from Covid-19 at the Ghazipur crematory facility east of New Delhi, India.

According to Twitter’s disclosure on the Lumen database – a Harvard University project (USA), the Indian government has issued an urgent order to censor posts on the platform. The COVID-19 epidemic in India is complicated. Photo: REUTERS Twitter rejected several posts following a legal request from the Indian government, a Twitter spokesperson told Reuters on April 24. In the legal request that the Indian government made on April 23 and was disclosed on Lumen, the Indian government side mentioned 21 posts. Among them were posts from a legislator named Revnath Reddy, a minister in West Bengal state named Moloy Ghatak and a filmmaker named Avinash Das. The Indian government has cited the Information Technology Act of 2000 in its request for censorship on Twitter. “When we receive a valid legal request, we will review it according to both Twitter’s rules and local law,” said a spokesperson for Twitter. “If the content violates Twitter’s rules, it will be removed from the service. If determined to be illegal in a certain jurisdiction, but not in violation of Twitter’s rules, We can only keep access to content in India “- the spokesperson said. The spokesperson confirmed that Twitter had directly notified the account holders of the retention of their content, and announced that the company had received a legitimate request regarding their posts. Such requests for content censorship were previously reported by tech news site TechCrunch, which states that Twitter is not the only platform affected by the order. India is experiencing an unprecedented wave of COVID-19 infections when in the Delhi metropolitan area alone, an average of one person dies of COVID-19 every less than four minutes. On April 24, the number of COVID-19 deaths across India increased by 2,624, to more than 189,500. Cremators across India buckled as the number of COVID-19 deaths soared. The flames from the cremation point, along with the stifling heat inherent, have made the atmosphere in India more uncomfortable and sad. The number of deaths increased rapidly leading to a shortage of firewood and wood used in cremation. Many families have to wait for hours for the turn to cremate a loved one. The rare number of electric burial furnaces is also overloaded.

A continuous red-fire manual cremation in India. Photo: Reuters For the fourth day in a row, on April 25, India set a global record for the number of new infections, stemming from a new virus variant sweeping, overwhelming every effort by the populous nation. world number 2. According to AP, the report of the Indian Ministry of Health on April 25 recorded 349,691 new cases, bringing the total number of cases in this country to over 16.9 million cases, the second most in the world after the US. In addition, there were 2,767 deaths in the past 24 hours, pushing the number of COVID-19 deaths in India to 192,311. Experts say that the actual death toll could be much greater, since it does not include suspected cases, and many deaths from COVID-19 are attributed to underlying medical conditions. . The Indian crisis is most evident in cemeteries, cremations and cremations, or in heartbreaking images of a series of suffocating patients on their way to a hospital due to lack of oxygen. India set a world record for the fourth consecutive day with the number of new infections reaching nearly 350,000 people. Photo: Reuters Cremation sites in the Indian capital New Delhi are running out of space and fiery cremation rigs lit up all night in other heavily affected cities. In the city center of Bhopal, a number of cremators have increased their capacity from a few dozen bodies to over 50 a day. However, bodies awaiting cremation still have to wait. At the city’s Bhadbhada Vishram Ghat crematorium, workers said they cremated more than 110 people on April 24, although figures from the city government of 1.8 million people only report the total number of deaths. because COVID-19 that day was 10 people. Mamtesh Sharma, a location official, said: “The virus is devouring the people of our city like a monster.” Watch the video of the painful scene of disinfection and cremation of the body of the COVID-19 victim in India (Source: Sky news) The massive influx of bodies has forced cremators to skip all the personal rituals and rituals that Hindus believe will help liberate souls. “We burned the bodies as soon as we arrived,” said Mr. Sharma. It was as if we were in the middle of a war. A monk rushed out of the cremation area of ​​COVID-19’s body after the ceremony. Photo: Getty Images Cremation of the body of COVID-19 victim with firewood in New Delhi on April 24. Photo: Reuters A grave digger at the largest Muslim cemetery in New Delhi, where 1,000 people have been buried during the pandemic, said more bodies are now being moved than last year and that the site will soon run out of space. The situation is equally dire at hospitals that are already packed with patients. People desperately wait in line to die, sometimes they stop breathing in the outer streets while waiting to see a doctor. Indian health officials are currently looking to expand intensive care areas and increase oxygen supplies. Patient COVID-19 was taken to a hospital in New Delhi. Photo: AFP A manual cremation ground for victims of COVID-19 in New Delhi. Photo: Getty Images Hospitals and patient families themselves struggle to procure the scarce medical equipment that is being sold at exponentially increasing prices. The crisis contradicted the government’s statement that “no one in the country will be left without oxygen,” in an April 24 statement by Indian Attorney General Tushar Mehta before the Supreme Court of Delhi. The crisis of the new COVID-19 wave is a huge failure for a country that only in January, Prime Minister Modi declared victory over the epidemic and is proud to be the “pharmacy of the world” – home global vaccine production, which is a model for other developing countries. Off guard against the spike in infections, the federal government has asked industrialists to increase production of oxygen and other drugs that are in short supply. However, health experts say India has a whole year to prepare, but they have not. People wait in line to pump more oxygen into the tank, to save patient COVID-19. Photo: DailyMail Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Medical University of South Carolina (USA), said the Indian government had “reacted very passively to this situation instead of actively”. Ms. Kuppalli said that the government should be using 2020, when the virus is better controlled, to prepare plans to tackle in the event of an outbreak, while at the same time “stockpiling drugs and developing relationships. Public-private partnerships to support the production of essential resources in the event of such a situation ”. “Most importantly, they should look at what’s going on in other parts of the world and understand that the possibility of India in a similar situation is only a matter of time,” said Ms. Kuppalli. Associate Professor Kuppalli called the Indian government’s early statements on pandemic victory a “mistake”, as it encouraged people to relax prevention measures when they should have continued to adhere to it. strict spacing, wear masks and avoid crowds. People waiting to be vaccinated against COVID in Mumbai, India Photo: AP Containers of oxygen were transported on board, delivered to India. Photo: Reuters Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is facing criticism for allowing Hindu festivals and massive election rallies, which experts suspect has contributed to the speed of the spread. of the virus. In such an election rally just two weeks ago, Modi could barely hide his joy when declaring to supporters in the state of West Bengal: “I have never seen such a large crowd.” . At that time, SARS-CoV-2 had begun to strike again and experts warned that a fatal increase was inevitable. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on April 25 that the US was “deeply concerned” about a serious COVID-19 outbreak in India. “We are working around the clock to deploy more supplies and support to our friends and partners in India as they bravely fight this pandemic,” said Mr. Sullivan on Twitter. Neighboring Pakistan also expressed support for people in India. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said it offered to provide relief assistance including breathing apparatus, oxygen supply unit, digital X-ray machine, personal protective equipment (PPE) and related items.

The relative of a Covid-19 patient died in a collapse in a graveyard in Jammu, India. Photo: AP Pictures spread dizzying on social networks and television showed relatives of patients desperately asking for oxygen outside hospitals, or crying on the streets because a loved one with Covid-19 died while waiting. treated. ABC News cites a woman who fell in love with her brother’s death at the age of 50 after being rejected by two hospitals and died of oxygen without a replacement vessel. The woman mourns the death of a member of her family from Covid-19 outside a crematory in New Delhi. Photo: Reuters India has just set a global record for the fifth consecutive day of new infections, mainly due to a new variant of SARS ‑ CoV ‑ 2. The shock wave denied any early claims about the pandemic victory that the officials of this country had made. According to Worldometers website, the number of corona virus infections in India in the past 24 hours was 354,531 people, bringing the total number of cases nationwide to more than 17.3 million. The number of deaths due to the epidemic rose to 195,116, an increase of 2,806 from a day earlier. The number of deaths can be very large, as the above statistics do not include suspected fatal cases. Medical staff taking care of a Covid-19 patient in Virar, near Mumbai. Photo: AP The current health crisis in India is most evident in overcrowded graveyards and crematoria, and in images of patients dying on the road from lack of oxygen. Burial sites in the capital New Delhi are full. The crematoriums in many cities burned nonstop day and night. In the central city of Bhopal, some crematoriums have to increase their capacity, but the list of corpses waiting for is growing longer. At the Bhadbhada Vishram Ghat crematory in a city of 1.8 million people, workers said they cremated more than 110 people on April 24. A Covid-19 patient cremation ground in New Delhi. Photo: AP “The virus is devouring the people of our city like a monster” – ABC News quoted an official named Mamtesh Sharma with sorrow. The influx of bodies brought in has caused cremators to bypass procedures and rituals for Hindu devotees. “We just cremated the bodies, as if we were in a war,” said Mr. Sharma. And in New Delhi’s largest Muslim cemetery, the body was so overfilled that the curator’s manager, Mohammad Shameem, was concerned that “we would run out of burial sites soon.” A Covid-19 patient cremation ground in New Delhi. Photo: AP The situation in hospitals was no less grim. The patients were so desperate to wait for treatment that they were lying on the street, looking forward to seeing a doctor. Indian health officials are trying to expand emergency spots and provide more oxygen but supplies are running out, while they are struggling to buy already scarce medical equipment. What’s happening in India right now is a huge setback for a country, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi just declared a pandemic victory in January, and is proud to be “the pharmacy of the world.” world “, the global producer of the vaccine, and is seen as a model for other developing countries in the prevention of Covid-19. People wait for the Covid-19 vaccine in Mumbai. Photo: AP Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, assistant professor of medicine in infectious diseases at the Medical University of South Carolina, said the Indian government should have used the past year, when the disease was well controlled, to store medicine and developing systems to cope with the risk of a new pandemic. “Most importantly they should observe what is going on in many other parts of the world and understand that it is only a matter of time before they fall into a similar situation,” Kuppalli said. Instead, the Indian government’s early victory statements encouraged people to relax while they should have continued to strictly adhere to anti-epidemic measures such as wearing masks and not crowding. Thanh Hao

Meanwhile, health officials are looking to increase special-care beds and oxygen reserves. Not only relatives of patients, but also hospitals find all kinds of ways to buy medical equipment, even on the black market. Social media sites and television news are filled with images of relatives of Covid-19 patients struggling to find oxygen sources outside hospitals or crying on the streets when their loved ones die. while waiting for treatment. Family members mourning when patient Covid-19’s death is taken to the crematorium in Jammu, India. Photo: AP “It’s like we’re in the middle of a war.” Video recorded by The Caravan Magazine shows a woman crying after the death of her 50-year-old brother. This man was rejected by 2 hospitals [do đã quá tải và không còn chỗ] and died waiting to be taken to the 3rd hospital. The patient’s oxygen tank was exhausted and had no reserves. April 25 is the fourth consecutive day that India has broken a global record for the number of Covid-19 cases recorded per day, mainly due to a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. As of the morning of April 26, India recorded 17,306,300 cases of Covid-19, of which 195,116 died and is currently the second largest epidemic area in the world, after the United States. Besides the heartbreaking image of exhausted patients on the way to the hospital due to lack of oxygen is a terrible picture in cemeteries and crematoria. The funeral homes in New Delhi are full of seats. The fire that cremated the victim of Covid-19 turned red in the night sky in the most affected cities. In the central Indian city of Bhopal, some funeral homes have increased their capacity to more than 50 crematoriums, but many bodies still have to wait hours and hours for their turn. Social networking sites and television news were filled with images of families crying when their loved ones died. Photo: AP At the Bhadbhada Vishram Ghat city crematory, workers said that on April 24 alone, they cremated more than 110 people. “The virus is devouring the people of our city like a monster. We cremated the bodies as soon as they arrived. It was as if we were in the middle of a war, ”said Mamtesh Sharma, a Bhadbhada Vishram Ghat city official. Refugees in the largest Muslim cemetery in New Delhi, where 1,000 people are buried during the Covid-19 pandemic, say more people have been brought there than last year. “I’m afraid we will run out of space very quickly,” said Mohammad Shameem. Crisis has been predicted The federal government has demanded that the industry increase oxygen production and other medications are scarce. Health experts say India had a year to prepare for this inevitable scenario, but they did not. Dr Krutika Kuppalli, an assistant professor at the Department of Infectious Diseases, University of South Carolina Medical, said that the Indian government should have taken advantage of 2020, when the epidemic was still under control, to anticipate storage of medicines and the development of new wave risk coping systems. The source of medical oxygen in India is running out. Photo: AP Instead, early declarations of victory over the Covid-19 pandemic left citizens letting go of precaution at a time when they should have continued to practice social distance, wear masks and avoid them. crowded people. Indian officials are facing criticism for allowing Hindu festivals as well as large-scale election campaigns to be held while experts have warned such activities will cause translation. The disease spreads rapidly. “They should have looked at what was happening in some parts of the world and understood that sooner or later they would be in a similar situation,” said Kuppalli. Currently, countries around the world are actively sending aid to India to help this country cope with the “Covid-19 tsunami”. The US says it will soon send stockpiling oxygen, test kits, medications, personal protective equipment and raw materials to India for the Covid-19 vaccine production. He also decided to send to India the necessary medical supplies and equipment, along with 600 ventilators and mobile oxygen generators. The first shipment departed from the UK on April 25 and will arrive in India on April 27.

But all hospitals are full. “We couldn’t find a hospital bed for him, but I couldn’t take him home, after all, under this condition”, Naharshetivar responded to local television, wearing a towel instead of a mask. They drove industriously for 24 hours. “He’s running out of oxygen.” He looked at his father. After 24 hours driving his father from hospital to hospital, Naharshetivar didn’t know how much longer he could do this. He looked urgently into the camera camera of the TV station and pleaded: “If I can’t give my father a hospital bed, is there a doctor that only needs to give him a shot? Can you help my father die painlessly?” People cremate those who have died because of COVID-19. (Photo: Getty) More than 1,200 kilometers away from the capital New Delhi, many COVID-19 patients die on stretchers outside the hospital overnight. Relatives tried to bring them in but could not make it in time. In Western Gujarat, a man cried painfully next to the body of his family – a cancer patient had just been tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and died in a parking lot when the hospital was overloaded. Some people argue and blame each other. Horrifying scenes are unfolding in hospitals and clinics across India. The country’s health system struggled as the number of COVID-19 cases skyrocketed. On April 22, India confirmed nearly 315,000 new infections in 24 hours – the highest number of cases per day in the world. In the following days, the record constantly being “shattered” in the epidemic is like a “tsunami” that can make anyone unlucky to fall. The disruption of the medical system brings with it fears that law and order will also wobble: oxygen trucks must move under police protection to deal with looting. The black market for selling medical equipment is “vibrant”. Vaccine theft was stolen from a hospital warehouse in Haryana but returned it with an apology. Police say the thief may have been planning to steal anti-virus drugs – drugs are also in serious shortage in this country. Some Indians have a self-sufficient inventory of oxygen at home, thinking that even trying to go to the hospital won’t do any good. Social media is full of desperate calls for help from bed seekers, oxygen, antivirals, vaccines. One longtime journalist even tweeted directly about his oxygen depletion levels until his death. The body of a person who died from COVID-19 was taken to the cremation site. (Photo: Getty) “I’ve never felt so hopeless or helpless”, Dr. Trupti Gilada said on Facebook. She cries while squatting in her car outside the Mumbai hospital, where she works. “We are seeing young people as well. We have a 35-year-old on mechanical ventilation. Please pray for our patients.” Vertical chart On the charts, the sudden increase in the number of cases in India is almost erect, rather than an ascending curve. This bewildered development hit the heads of Indians not long after their cases plunged to a record low in February. Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, epidemiologist and public health specialist working on a technical team that advises the Indian government on COVID-19, said: “Here many people, from the general public to the policymakers, are convinced that India will not have a second wave. Unfortunately, they have let their guard down. It is clear that society is open – tourism. , local elections, religious gatherings, weddings – have led to super contagious events. And the emergence of variations has also certainly increased this pace. “ The number of daily COVID-19 cases in India, the chart starts to “climb up” from mid-March 2021. (Source: Times of India) Last month, the Indian Ministry of Health announced it had detected 771 variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the country, including a “collection” of variants identified first in the UK, South. African and Brazilian, as well as the new variant is called “double mutation”. In that variant, Indian scientists say they are working on two mutations that could increase the virus’s infectivity and help it avoid vaccines. Fears are heightened when Indian media reported fully vaccinated people who are still ill, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, 88. He was hospitalized for COVID-19 almost three weeks after a second dose of vaccine on April 3. As of April 20, his condition had stabilized. However, experts say concerns about the reduced efficacy of the vaccine have yet to be scientifically proven. It is not clear how sick people were, or what of the hundreds of SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating throughout India. The country’s Ministry of Health said it has so far distributed 132 million doses of vaccine to a population of nearly 1.4 billion people. That means less than 10% of India’s population has received one dose and less than 2% have received 2 doses. On April 20, the Indian government released data showing that only 0.03% or 0.04% of fully vaccinated people tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. India has been using two vaccines with high efficacy rates in clinical trials: Oxford – AstraZeneca and another produced by Indian company Bharat Biotech. Cruel record Bodies were piled up in the morgue. The crematorium is not running at full capacity. According to official data, the number of new cases in India on April 25 increased by 352,991. However, this may not be the complete number, according to NPR . The number of deaths caused by COVID-19 in India also broke the record, 2,104 people on April 22, and 2,812 people on April 25, not to mention many deaths outside the hospital and not being tested. “The second wave of COVID-19 comes like a storm”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. The Indian government announced it would extend the vaccination population from May 1 to anyone over 18 years old. But in early April, hundreds of clinics across the country ran out of vaccines. Many people who came to the appointment saw signs posted at the hospital gates indicating the vaccination room was closed. It was a shock to the nation that prides itself on being the world’s largest producer of vaccines. India once exported COVID-19 vaccine, but now there are not enough vaccines for domestic use. (Illustration) Unlike the first phase, on January 20, Prime Minister Modi ruled out the possibility of continuing to block the country and told the states that blockade should only be used as a last resort. His government is facing criticism for allowing large numbers of events to unfold during the epidemic. In March 2020, when the number of cases was relatively low in India, Modi imposed the largest national blockade in the world. Residents are only notified 4 hours in advance. And the economic costs are staggering: India’s economy slumped by nearly 24%, migrant workers starved to death on the streets. This week, amid new restrictions imposed in the capital Delhi, one of the main bus stops here is once again filled with migrant workers, as they try to escape the city to return home. Social distance continues to become a luxury.

Seemapuri cremation site blazed as cases of the SARS-CoV-2 virus increased dramatically in New Delhi, India. Photo: Indian Photo Agency According to The Guardian (UK), the COVID-19 “tsunami” that swept through India is causing the number of cases and deaths in this country to increase exponentially. Cremators across the capital New Delhi are struggling to process the increasing number of bodies brought in. Many families of victims of COVID-19 deaths have to wait up to 20 hours to cremate each body because the crematoriums are full. In New Delhi, photos taken on April 27 show smoke rising from dozens of crematoriums in a parking lot that has been turned into a temporary cremation site. Elsewhere, workers had to build temporary crematoriums on vacant land outside crematoria. In addition, parks and many other empty spaces were also utilized. Workers build a temporary crematorium in a park on the grounds of a crematorium in New Delhi Photo: Getty Images “People are dying, dying out,” said Jitender Singh Shanty, who coordinates more than 100 cremations a day at a site east of the city. If more bodies were received, we would cremate the streets. There are no more vacancies here. We never thought we would see such horrible scenes ”. Worker building temporary crematorium in New Delhi Photo: Getty Images Previously, the BBC (UK) also reported that Indian officials had requested to cut trees in the park for firewood to cremate COVID-19 victims. The staff at the cremation site also had to work harder than usual. They were so busy that family members of the COVID-19 victims had to come in to help, like bringing firewood to a funeral pyre. Lines of corpses of COVID-19 victims await cremation at the Subhash Nagar crematory, in New Delhi on April 27. Photo: ANI At the Sarai Kale Khan cremation site in New Delhi, staff are handling approximately 60-70 bodies a day. This facility was originally capable of handling only 22 bodies. As a result, 27 new crematoriums have been built at this crematorium and dozens more are being added in a nearby park. Officials are also looking for more space near the city’s Yamuna River, as the COVID-19 death toll is expected to be even higher. Geeta Colony Cremation Site in New Delhi, India. Photo: India Today An employee at the Sarai Kale Khan crematorium shared that they were operating continuously from early morning to midnight. The Ghazipur crematorium in East Delhi had to build an additional 20 crematoriums in the parking lot. The situation is similarly tense, according to NDTV, about 25 other cremation and burial sites in the city. Sarai Kale Khan cremation site built 70 new crematoriums on the hideout when large numbers of corpses came here every day. Photo: India Today In the past 24 hours, India set a world record for new infections again, with 362,902 cases, while there were 3,285 new deaths, according to worldometers statistics site. According to CNN, India has recorded a total of more than 17.9 million cases of COVID since the outbreak of the pandemic, but the real number, according to experts, could be 30 times higher, which means that half a billion cases. Health officials and scientists in India have long warned that COVID-19 infections and reported deaths were negligible for a number of reasons, including poor infrastructure. , human error and low testing rate. India has pledged to provide emergency medical assistance amid overcrowded hospitals that continue to be unable to accommodate more patients due to a lack of beds and oxygen supplies. The country also imported 20 frozen vehicles and sent them to the states in an effort to address the shortage of oxygen vehicles. Many countries around the world, including the UK, Germany and the US, have also pledged to provide emergency medical aid to India in the context of the country’s health system struggling with COVID cases. -19 spike.

As India suffers from the world’s worst corona virus crisis, our New Delhi chiefs describe the fear of living in the midst of a pandemic spreading at large scale and speed. so. The crematoriums piled up the bodies, as if a war had just happened. Fire burns day and night. Many places held mass cremations, with dozens of people at the same time. And, at night, in some areas of New Delhi, the sky was blazing with flames. The sick person, without a bed, must lie down on the ground. Photo: New York Times. I waited for my turn to become infected Sickness and death were everywhere. Dozens of homes in my neighborhood have people infected. One of my colleagues is sick. My son’s teacher is also sick. The neighbor is two houses on the right side: Um. The two houses on the left: Um. “I don’t know what kind of illness I have,” said a good friend of mine who was in the hospital. “Just taking a breath and you will …”, his voice fades, unable to finish the sentence because he is too tired. He barely has a decent bed. And the medicine that the doctor prescribed for him is not in India. I was sitting in my house waiting for my turn to get sick. That is the feeling it is in New Delhi, as the world’s worst Covid-19 crisis is happening all around us. It’s out there, I’m here, and I feel as if it’s only a matter of time before I get sick. India is recording more infections every day, sometimes up to 350,000, more than any other country since the beginning of the pandemic, and that’s just the official numbers. Most experts believe that this number is lower than reality. The crematorium was overloaded, many bodies were waiting for their turn. Photo: New York Times. New Delhi, the vast capital of India’s 20 million people, is suffering from a huge spurt. A few days ago, the positive rate reached a staggering 36%. This means that more than a third of people tested are infected. A month ago, this figure was less than 3%. The disease spread so quickly that hospitals were completely flooded with sick people. Thousands of people were turned away. Medicine is exhausted. The same goes for lifesaving oxygen. Patients are trapped in long, tangled lines at the hospital gate or at home. They were gasping for breath, literally. Although New Delhi was blocked, the epidemic was still raging. Doctors across this city and some of Delhi’s top politicians are giving desperate SOS calls, both on social media and on TV, to beg for oxygen, medicine, and help. . It was as if war had just happened in India Experts have always warned that Covid-19 could devastate India completely. The country is vast with about 1.4 billion people, densely populated, and in many places, its inhabitants are still very poor. What we are witnessing is very different from last year, in the first wave of India. Then there is the fear of the unknown. Now we know. We know the overall disease, its size, its speed. We know how frightening this second wave is, it hits everyone at once. The outdoor collective cremation ground is constantly red and fiery. Photo: New York Times. What we feared in the first wave of last year is now coming to the fore: the disruption, the fall, the realization that so many people will die. As a foreign reporter for nearly 20 years, I traveled around war zones, was kidnapped in Iraq and sent to jail in many places. But this pandemic is worrisome in another way. There is no way to know if I, my wife, and two children are among those with mild illness and then recover well, or if we will be exhausted. And if we get really sick, where do we go? The intensive care areas are full. The entrance to many hospitals has been closed. A new strain here has a “double mutation” that can cause a lot of harm. Science has yet to delve into it, but as far as we know, one mutation makes the virus more contagious, and the other makes it partially resistant to the vaccine. Doctors are quite scared. I talked to a few people and they said that I had the vaccine twice but still got very sick. A Covid-19 patient is waiting to be hospitalized in South Delhi, April 24. Photo: New York Times. So what can we do? Personally, I try to stay optimistic, believing it to be one of the best immune system boosters. However, in reality, I find myself lazily walking indoors, cooking for the children in a lethargic state, feeling like both my mind and body are dough like wet powder. I’m afraid of checking my phone because I miss a text message telling my other friend that my friend is seriously ill, or worse. I am sure millions of people feel the same way. I began to visualize the symptoms: Did I have a sore throat? What is that headache? Is my condition worse today than yesterday? A part of where I live, South Delhi, is now blocked. Like many other places, we had a strict blockade last year. But now, the doctors here are warning us that the virus is more contagious and we have a lot less chance of getting help than the last wave. Therefore, many of us are frightened when we step outside, as if there is poison in the air and everyone is afraid of breathing. No one wears a mask, not even the police Delhi is plunged into hardships and dangers, but the situation is still getting worse. Epidemiologists say the number will continue to grow, possibly up to 500,000 new infections per day nationwide, and up to one million Indians will die from Covid-19 until August. It should not be like this. India was anti-epidemic well up until a few weeks ago, at least on the surface. The country closed its doors, experienced the first wave, then reopened. The mortality rate here is very low (at least according to official statistics). Last winter, life almost returned to normal. I was out for the news in January and February, driving through towns in Central India. Nobody – I mean, no one, not even the police – wear a mask. This is as if the country is telling itself: “It’s okay, we have it under control”, despite the wave of a second wave. But now, not many people dare to think like that anymore. Relatives of a Covid-19 victim were performing a religious ceremony during the funeral on April 24. Photo: New York Times. Many in India are also upset with the speed of the vaccination campaign. Less than 10% of the population has received one dose, and only 1.6% are fully vaccinated, even though India is producing two vaccines. “Catastrophic catastrophe” Here, as elsewhere, the rich are less affected by a crisis. But this time it was different. A friend of mine, well connected, asked all the people he knew to help his friend, a severe Covid-19 patient. His friend is dead. No one can help him in hospital. The patient is paralyzed. “I tried everything to get him a bed, but we couldn’t. Everything is chaotic, ”my friend said, his emotions still intact. “This is a disaster. This is murder ”. Every day, I ventured out to buy food because no one delivered it. I wear two masks completely and stay as far away from others as possible. Almost every day passed, a family of 4 of us all withered from inside. We try to play together, try not to talk about the people who just got sick, or the people running around town looking for help, and they probably won’t find it. Sometimes we just sat quietly in the living room, looking out at the sweet figs and palms. Through the open window, on long, hot, quiet afternoons, we can only hear two languages: the sound of an ambulance. And birds. ‘The dead cannot leave peacefully in New Delhi either’ India is suffering from a serious shortage of medical equipment and oxygen in the context of a rapidly increasing number of Covid-19 cases. The patient’s family had to wait languidly for the cremation.

The Nigambodh Ghat Crematorium in New Delhi, India. Photo: Getty Images According to CNN (USA), a crematorium in the state of Uttar Pradesh is in a similar situation, with the number of bodies brought to cremation fivefold in recent weeks, as the 2nd wave of COVID-19s. booming in India. “We had to work day and night, at 100% capacity, to cremate bodies in time,” said Kamlesh Sailor, chairman of the Kurukshetra Cremation Facility Executive Trust in Surat City, Gujarat State. west India, said. Data difference As India’s health system is on the brink of collapse, several major cities have recorded far greater numbers of bodies sent to cremation and burial compared to deaths due to COVID-19. official father. On April 18, India recorded a record 273,810 cases of COVID-19 and 1,619 deaths. As of April 20, the total number of COVID-19 cases of this country has exceeded 15.5 million, second only to the US. A front line employee cremates a man who died of COVID-19 at a crematorium in the Indian suburbs of Mumbai. Photo: Reuters Reliable data is central to the government’s pandemic response, experts say. Without reliable data collection, the preparation of hospital beds and medical essentials will be extremely difficult. But Indian government officials say the disparity in mortality data could be caused by many factors, including an overly prudent body handling process. Many bodies are still cremated according to COVID-19, even if they are only 0.1% likely to be positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a health official said. “Many hospitalized patients were in critical condition and died before testing. There are cases where patients died before admission, we don’t know if they have COVID-19 or not”, the official said to be anonymous. Ms. Bhramar Mukherjee, Professor of Epidemiology and Biological Statistics at the University of Michigan, said there are many areas in India where accurate data cannot be collected. “Things are messed up. It feels like no one understands this situation, it’s annoying,” said Ms. Mukherjee. The crematorium is operating at full capacity The crematorium of patients COVID-19 in Surat broke out. Photo: AFP In Surat, the second largest city in the state of Gujarat, the crematorium Kurukshetra and Umra processed more than 100 bodies a day according to COVID-19 regulations last week. The number of bodies cremated is much higher than the daily death toll, according to the city’s official record of about 25 people. Mr. Prashant Kabrawala, representative of Narayan Trust, Ashwinikumar crematorial company, refused to provide the number of bodies cremated in accordance with COVID-19 regulations. However, he says the number has tripled in recent weeks. “I have never seen so many cremated bodies in the last years, even during the outbreak of the plague in 1994 and the flood of 2006,” Kabrawala said. A Government spokesperson for India in Gujarat declined to respond to a request for comment. India is not the only country that is skeptical of the SARS-CoV-2 virus statistical data. But documents and staff testimonies at cremations show that the disparity in officially reported deaths in India is much higher than in other countries. Professor Mukherjee’s study on the first wave of epidemics in India showed that the number of viral infections was 11 times more than officially reported, which is similar to research in other countries. Besides, the number of deaths in this country is actually 2-5 times higher than the reported data, far exceeding the global average. A relative of COVID-19 victim leans sadly against a glass window at a crematory in New Delhi. Photo: Getty In Lucknow, the state capital of Uttar Pradesh, data from Baikunthdham, the largest cremation facility for people with COVID-19, found that the number of corpses disposed of in April was twice as high as the number of deaths. Death from COVID-19 is recognized by the government. These figures do not take into account other burial facilities, or cases where COVID-19 victims were buried according to Muslim custom – the community makes up a quarter of Lucknow’s population. The number of bodies cremated under COVID-19 regulations has increased fivefold in recent weeks, said Azad, manager of the Baikunthdham facility. “We work day and night. The crematorium is constantly on fire, but many bodies are still waiting in line,” Azad said. People pray before burying the COVID-19 victims at a cemetery in New Delhi. Photo: Reuters Cremations are many times greater than the COVID-19 mortality data also recorded in many other parts of India. In just four days of April, two cremation facilities in Bhopal – the capital of Madhya Pradesh state, central India – recorded 187 bodies cremated according to COVID-19. Meanwhile, the number of deaths from COVID-19 officially announced by the authorities was only 5. Last week, the local Sandesh newspaper reported 63 bodies were taken to a hospital for patients with COVID-19 in the city of Ahmedabad. But that same day, the city authorities counted only 20 people who died from COVID-19. The Lancet Medical Journal says less than a quarter of all deaths in India are medically confirmed, especially in rural areas. This means that the actual COVID-19 mortality in many other Indian states may not be counted. “Most of the deaths are not reported so it is impossible to calculate,” said Ms. Mukherjee.

Bodies piled up in cremators and mass burial sites across India are raising fears that the number of deaths caused by the second Covid-19 wave in the country is many times higher than figures are officially published. Relatives mourn a patient who has just died of Covid-19 in New Delhi, India. Photo: Reuters Medical services and other essential services across India nearly collapsed when the second wave of Covid-19 swept through the country at frightening speeds in mid-March. The cemeteries ran out of space. The hospital refused to accept patients because of being overloaded, and the families desperately asked for help on social networks On April 22, India broke the record for the number of new cases per day globally with 314,835 new cases. With nearly 16 million people infected with Covid-19, India is the second most severely affected country in the world, behind only the US. The outbreak of the 2nd Covid-19 wave in India not only risks its economic recovery, but also affects the global war against epidemics. “Things are out of control,” said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Research in New Delhi. There is no oxygen. It is very difficult to find a hospital bed. Can’t get tested. You have to wait more than a week. The health system almost collapsed. Earlier on April 21, at least 22 Covd-19 patients being treated with a ventilator died while waiting for oxygen supplies, a senior official in Nashik district in Maharashtra state, India said. Faced with a serious shortage of medical supplies in hospitals across the country, local and state governments have urged the federal government to provide more oxygen and medicine. On April 21, President Modi announced the plan to supply 100,000 oxygen cylinders nationwide, build a new oxygen production plant and set up hospitals exclusively for Covid-19 patients. But experts fear that the plan was launched too late and the number is too little in the context of virus-infected patients struggling every day with “death” and the continuation of mass gatherings. causing the virus to spread faster and more strongly. Urgent cries for help on social networks With so few options available, many families have been calling for help via social media. Anil Tiwari, 34, lost his beloved father in November 2020 due to the Covid-19 translation. Last week, his mother also tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. She has been admitted to hospital treatment but needs to be in a special care bed (ICU). Due to the lack of ICU beds in the hospital, Anil Tiwari pleaded for help on her Twitter page: “Please save my mother. I love her more than anything. After days of relentless efforts, including calling the city government to be placed on the waiting list, Tiwari’s mother was finally given an ICU bed. But what she needed right now was oxygen – something that the hospital was lacking. “She can still walk, but always find it hard to breathe,” said Tiwari. Demand for Remdesivir for Covid-19 and its medicinal ingredients skyrocketed in the second wave of Covid-19, forcing the Indian government to temporarily ban drug exports to increase supplies. market connection. The government has allowed hospitals to use the drug in emergencies, although the Health Organization (WHO) previously said, there is no evidence that Remdesivir reduces the risk of death in infected individuals. Covid-19 heavy. Abhijeet Kumar, a 20-year-old college student, used Twitter to donate medical bills for his 52-year-old uncle, who is hospitalized in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. “The injections are very expensive. They say it costs between 12,000 and 15,000 rupees (about 160 to 200 USD). He had two doses but needed a third and we could not afford it. My uncle works as a plumber, ”said Abhijeet Kumar. Some states in India said that high demand while limited supply has enabled the “black market” to scream high prices for Remdesivir and some similar drugs. Even nurses and doctors are working hard to find beds and treatment options for their loved ones, said Parkar, a pulmonologist in Mumbai. Indian Mistakes and A Warning to the World Although most attention has been on the new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that appeared in India recently, experts believe that the cause of the new Covid-19 outbreak is It can stem from social behaviors, weaknesses in the health system and a number of policy mistakes in the country. Indian officials may have been too subjective to believe that the worst has fallen behind when the number of Covid-19 cases began to decline in September 2020. The number of cases fell for 30 weeks in a row before starting to increase in mid-February and breaking out in mid-March. According to some experts, India did not seize the opportunity to consolidate its infrastructure. health care and immunization campaign intensification. “The authorities have not provided a long-term overview of the pandemic,” said Dr. Vineeta Bal, an immune system researcher at the National Institute of Immunology in India. Suggestions to upgrade the health system, such as building the capacity of hospitals or hiring an epidemiologist to monitor virus growth, have been ignored, she said. Currently, the Indian authorities are trying to restore many emergency measures that were removed when the number of cases decreased. India could have avoided a shortage of oxygen – something Latin America and Africa experienced a year ago if it converted its industrial oxygen production system into a network of supplies. medical. However, many facilities have returned to provide oxygen to industries and hospitals in this country are facing severe hypoxia. Analysts said that India will face a great challenge in preventing the health system from collapsing until enough people are vaccinated to achieve community immunity. Although India halted vaccine exports in March to meet domestic needs, it is not clear whether the country’s vaccine makers will be able to speed up production. “Vaccination is one way to slow the spread of the virus, but it depends on production speed and availability of vaccine doses,” said Srinath Reddy, president of the Indian Community Health Foundation. . In addition, the Indian government has also received criticism for not pausing major religious festivals, such as the Kumbh Mela bleaching festival on the banks of the Ganges River or election events. Many experts believe that the activities of gathering people have caused the number of cases to explode more strongly./.

“We have to race against time, work at 100% capacity to cremate bodies in time,” said Kamlesh Sailor, president of the organization that operates a cremation facility in Surat City, Gujarat state. Data from cremation facilities, media to the government show that the number of people buried or cremated by major cities is much greater than the number of Covid-19 deaths recorded by the authorities. official health announcement, according to Reuters . The difference in the number of deaths Reliable data is central to every nation’s anti-pandemic efforts, experts say. Without reliable data, such as vaccine preparation and medical essentials supply are extremely difficult. On April 19, India recorded 273,810 new infections, along with 1,619 deaths. The total number of Covid-19 cases in India is now more than 15 million, ranking second only to the United States. But it is more likely that the above statistic is much lower than what is actually happening. The bodies are cremated according to Covid-19 defense regulations in India. Photo: Sentinel. Indian authorities say the discrepancy in death data could be caused by a variety of reasons. Many corpses are cremated according to the Covid-19 prevention “even if there is only a 0.1% chance that the person is positive for the virus,” said a health official. “There are many cases where patients are hospitalized in a very critical condition and die before being tested. There are cases where patients died prior to admission, we don’t know if they have Covid-19 or not”, the official said to be anonymous. There are many areas in India where reliable data cannot be collected, said Bhramar Mukherjee, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Michigan. “Things are messed up, I feel like no one understood the situation,” Mr. Mukherjee said. Surat is the second largest city in the state of Gujarat. At the cremation facilities Kurukshetra and Umra, more than 100 bodies are cremated every day according to Covid-19 regulations. This figure is four times higher than the official statistics of the number of people dying from Covid-19. Prashant Kabrawala, representative of the Narayan Trust, which runs the Ashwinikumar cremation facility, refused to provide the number of bodies cremated under anti-epidemic regulations. However, he says the number of cremations has tripled in recent weeks. “I’ve never seen so many cremated bodies over the years,” Kabrawala said. An Indian government spokesman in Gujarat declined to comment ahead of the difference in the number of deaths and cremations associated with the epidemic. India is not the only country where corona virus statistics have been questioned. But scientific literature and cremation staff testimony show that the disparity in officially reported deaths in India is much higher than in other countries. Professor Mukherjee’s study against the first wave of epidemics in India showed that the number of viral infections is 11 times more than officially reported, which is similar to research in other countries. However, the difference in officially reported deaths ranges from 2-5 times, much higher than the global average. The incinerator burned non-stop In Lucknow, the state capital of Uttar Pradesh, data from the largest cremation facility called Baikunthdham, which only processed the bodies of Covid-19 patients, showed that the number of bodies brought in was twice as high. The death of corona virus is reported by the government. That’s not to mention data from other cremation facilities, or cases of the Muslim customary burial – the community that makes up a quarter of Lucknow’s population. Azad, the Baikunthdham facility manager, said the number of bodies cremated under anti-epidemic regulations has increased fivefold in recent weeks. “We work day and night. The furnace is burning red continuously, but many bodies still have to line up,” Azad said. The state government of Uttar Pradesh declined to respond to a request for comment on Covid-19 death data. Cremations many times greater than the number of Covid-19 deaths have also been reported in many other parts of India. Cremation facility staff in New Delhi are exhausted from a work shift. Photo: QZ. In Bhopal, the state capital of Madhya Pradesh, it was recorded during 4 days of April that 187 bodies had been cremated according to anti-epidemic regulations. However, the number of corona virus deaths officially announced by the authorities is only 5. Last week, the sheet Sandesh 63 bodies were reported to a hospital for Covid-19 patients only in the city of Ahmedabad. However, that same day, the city authorities only counted 20 people died from the corona virus. Medical Journal Lancet says less than 25% of all deaths in India are confirmed medically, meaning that the exact number of deaths from Covid-19 in many regions cannot be determined. “Most of the deaths are not reported, so it is impossible to have a reliable calculation,” said Professor Mukherjee.