But these days, traffic is sparse, with only occasional trucks or motorbikes passing by. The once noisy atmosphere no longer appeared. Unpleasant silence crept across India as the COVID-19 crisis erupted, partly due to local closures of factories, and partly because many people here fear infection. Contrary to that quiet, fighting activities are increasingly explosive: ambulances race to the next patient, ordinary people frantically criss-crossing the city in search of medicine, oxygen, and beds sick. After a year of relative calm, the country of nearly 1.4 billion people is grappling with a powerful last-minute storm. With the number of new cases still exceeding 300,000 per day, India regularly accounts for around 50% of all new cases worldwide. Vijayawada International Airport was bustling with only a handful of passengers, and flights were also few. (Photo: ST) Problems from tests At the end of April, in the corner of the Artemis hospital compound in Gurgaon, a man repeatedly fell and had to be helped by those around him as he stood in line waiting for an RT-PCR test. The man was seated in a chair but collapsed. He was brought to the front of the queue but was too weak to last long. As hospital staff led the man toward the main building, he resisted, pointing to an elderly man sitting in the corner. Turns out this person came here not to do an RT-PCR test for himself but for his father. Meanwhile, at the front, the doctor in charge, overwhelmed by the number of samples to be taken, shouted at a patient for breaking in. Most people in line will wait at least two hours to be checked in. And it takes at least 48 hours to get results. Crowds of testing people create congestion at facilities. (Photo: ST) Unlike the first wave that affected the elderly, the second wave made many young people sick. Middle-aged parents have to bring children with coughs and fevers to testing centers. Prolonged delays have unfortunate consequences. Without quick and reliable test results, people won’t be able to get the care they need and could end up passing the virus on to many others. Mr. Claudien Jacob understood the situation all too well. He lost his 71-year-old mother on April 29 at home in Bangalore, when she was bedridden. She was hot with fever and her oxygen saturation level gradually decreased. By the time they were able to have a lab technician come to their home to collect an RT-PCR sample, other household members had also developed typical symptoms of COVID-19. But without the test, she wouldn’t have a hospital bed. On April 29, at 7 a.m., she took her last breath. At 7:30 a.m., Mr. Jacob’s phone beeped with her test result: positive. He has yet to receive his test results. “I’m dead tired, but no one else is doing this, so I went to the cemetery. I still haven’t had time to feel that my mother is dead.” A grieving family sends off a loved one who died of COVID-19 while keeping their distance. (Photo: ST) In March 2020, during the first pandemic outbreak, India instituted a strict 21-day lockdown. While bad for the economy, this also helps expand infrastructure from hospital beds to testing facilities. The number of tests has been increased from less than 100 to more than 1.4 million per day. The number of labs doing testing has also increased from 14 at the beginning of last year to more than 2,400 this year. But that’s still not enough. Survival battle Now, it’s common for Indians to see people rushing to find the basic necessities that were always assumed hospitals would have. Never before have citizens had to hunt for oxygen as often as they do now. Looking out the window, it’s not difficult to see someone rushing with an oxygen tank on the car to bring to the patient. Hospitalization – is a matter of will, wealth, relationships and of course luck. Indians now joke that before the pandemic, people panicked when a loved one was taken to the hospital’s intensive care unit, but now they’re happy. The journey to getting a bed is like a competitive sport. Common scene on Indian streets. (Photo: ST) Survival is not easy either. People safe from COVID-19 and their families talk about loneliness and stress. Families are not allowed to see patients in COVID-19 wards or intensive care units. In absolute isolation, all one could hear was the single, heavy breathing. But anyway, they are still considered “lucky” people. Coping with trauma Outside the Old Seemapuri crematorium in Delhi, Jitender Singh Shunty, founder of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sewa Dal – a non-profit organization – drinks his first tea at 2pm. He said he felt like fainting and had to rest despite having very little time. Mr. Shunty helped cremate unclaimed bodies and dispose of the ashes in the Hindu tradition, receiving many calls. “Yes, we will come and prepare for the funeral. Don’t worry”, he told a desperate person on the phone. He received more than 400 calls a day, and lived in the car for days. He has a fleet of 18 ambulances and has lost one driver, Arif Khan, to the pandemic. These two were rejected by 4 hospitals in one day. (Photo: ST) Ordinary men and women have become superheroes during the pandemic. A driver in Bhopal sells his wife’s jewelry to convert the car into a makeshift ambulance. Another person in Mumbai sells his SUV for 2.2 million rupees to buy oxygen tanks for everyone. In Kerala, an elderly man donated almost all of his savings of Rs 200,000 to COVID-19 relief efforts. A nursing mother in Bangalore donates breast milk to a premature baby whose mother has died from the epidemic. And it is these moments that are a temporary respite from the horror that is unfolding. A nurse cares for a child who has recently recovered from COVID-19. (Photo: ST)

Dressed in blue protective gear and wearing a visor under a bright yellow turban, Jitender Singh Shunty sprayed disinfectant on bodies at the Seemapuri crematorium in northeastern Delhi. He had to act fast because bodies were delivered faster than cremation. The families and friends of those who have died, and those who are trying to find hospital beds and oxygen tanks to save their loved ones, are losing patience. “We are doing all we can to help families have a decent funeral for their loved ones,” he said as he rushed into another ambulance that had just arrived with two bodies. Since the beginning of April, when India suffered a second wave of the outbreak, Jitender Singh Shunty and his 20 volunteers were shocked by the large number of bodies brought in. “Last year we cremated 967 bodies, this month alone we cremated 670 bodies,” he said. Worldometers chart of the high number of infections in India as of May 10. About 20km from Seemapuri, New Delhi, dozens of people were gathering outside Waseem’s gas station. They all have the same question: When will the new oxygen tanks arrive? Waseem is committed to updating information on WhatsApp as soon as it is available. “People are dying from lack of oxygen so I thought I had to do something to help them,” Waseem said. “Someone told me that I would get sick if I kept going out and meeting so many people with Covid-19 relatives. I’m really scared, but if I don’t help them, I’ll be haunted for life.” Waseem added. Not alone As India is trying to find a way to deal with the pandemic, young men and women from all over the country do not hesitate to volunteer to contribute to the fight. They set up apps to solicit support and help, distribute key supplies, and use social media to direct resources to those in need. With two-thirds of its 1.3 billion population under the age of 35, India is a country dominated by young people, but young people have never been called upon to shoulder such enormous responsibilities. Photo: Times of India Swadha Prasad is working with dozens of volunteers – all between the ages of 14 and 19 – as part of the youth-led UNCUT organization, building an online database to gather information. about available medical resources across the country. This is 24/7, with teens constantly working over the phone to verify supplies, update information in real time, and take calls from patient relatives. “Some of us work from midnight to morning, because the calls don’t stop at 3 a.m.,” CNA quoted Prasad, a 17-year-old schoolgirl who worked 14 hours a day from noon the day before to 1 a.m. next morning. It was a long and tiring shift, but this Mumbai resident was still very enthusiastic. “If I could help save a life, I would never say No.” And many Covid-19 victims have been saved. Prasad cites an example where her team was able to deliver oxygen in the middle of the night, saving the life of a young patient desperately waiting for help. “It’s not just about providing resources… sometimes people want to know they’re not alone,” she said. The graph of Worldometers shows the correlation between the number of new infections (yellow) and the number of new recoveries (blue) in India as of April 30. Technology limitations However, in many small Indian towns and villages, technological limitations exacerbate the situation. Urgent requests for resources and spare hospital beds have spurred a large number of Twitter users. 25-year-old software engineer Umang Galaiya solved this problem by writing an app that makes it easy for users to find what they need, and directs their search to verified resources. But even so, his application cannot help many people living outside of big cities because the number of internet users is very small. “If I look for resources in Jamnagar, I get nothing on Twitter,” reflected the young man. And according to this male engineer, the pandemic cannot be controlled without the government. Simple measures still save many lives. For example, authorities could create an online bed registry, which updates automatically in real time, to save distressed patients from running back and forth knocking on the door of each treatment facility. According to the update of statistics page Worldometers, as of noon on May 12, India has recorded more than 23.3 million people infected with Covid-19 and about 254,200 deaths.

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.

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.