India ‘broke the game’ in the second wave of Covid-19 India is being devastated by the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. In just 24 hours, the number of deaths due to the country’s pandemic reached 2,000 people and more than 300,000 new cases. Every night, fire blazed brightly on the banks of the Ganges River. Not the flames of traditional Hindu festivals, they are the cremations of the bodies of the victims who died for Covid-19, a horrifying symbol of the unprecedented humanitarian tragedy taking place in India. Degree. From urban to rural areas, patients die in the despair of relatives, because they cannot find an empty hospital bed. The supply of oxygen and medicine was depleted, leading to countless cases of robbery of medical supplies from the hospital. At cremation facilities, crematoriums are always red for 24 hours, but countless dead bodies are still waiting in line, according to the report. Financial Times . Staff at a cremation facility in New Delhi. Photo: AFP. The epidemic wave is unprecedented The grim reality has sparked a flame of public anger over the authorities’ preparations. Just two months ago, India appeared to have successfully controlled the epidemic. However, as of April 22, India broke the world record for the number of new infections per day with 312,732 virus-positive cases. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata party allegedly put political interests above public health after holding a series of large-scale rallies, as well as allowing a Kumbh Mela festival of millions to be held. attendees in the midst of the second epidemic wave. A new strain is suspected of being behind the current wave of terrible epidemics, leading experts to fear India is on a path similar to Brazil – a country where the health system and economy have been brought down by the corona virus. down. “The health system is not well prepared for this epidemic wave. A lot of people in government across the country are not thinking of this new wave of epidemics. Some miraculously they assume we are already.” over the pandemic, “said Srinath Reddy, chairman of the Indian Community Health Foundation. Although the mortality rate is still relatively low, other indicators are pointing to a worsening crisis. Both the number of new infections and the positive rate are growing at the fastest rates in the world. The rate of infection increased from 3% last month to 16% now. Relatives kneel and cry beside the body of a patient who has died of Covid-19. Photo: AP. In the capital New Delhi, there are more new infections every day than in any other city. Every 5 days, the number of Covid-19 cases doubles. In many areas, the number of infected people outstrips the hospital’s ability to service. In the city of Nagpur, the proportion of patients requiring intensive care is 353 people per million people, higher than anywhere in Europe. Meanwhile, in the financial capital Mumbai, the rate is 194 patients per million population. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that many deaths from Covid-19 have not been fully counted. According to media reports in seven counties in the states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, at least 1,833 bodies have been cremated with Covid-19 in recent days. However, only 228 deaths from Covid-19 have been officially recorded. In the Jamnagar district in Gujarat, 100 people died of Covid-19, but only one case has been officially reported. People died everywhere The state of Uttar Pradesh, home to 200 million people, is one of the poorest states in India. The situation in the capital Lucknow shows that India’s medical infrastructure is on the brink of collapse. Local media said that at King George’s College of Medicine alone, up to 50 patients lined up for a hospital bed. Shivi Shah is a resident of Lucknow. When her brother was positive for corona virus last week, Shah decided to send his parents to his home to avoid the worst scenario. But it was all too late, for both Shah and father. After only 3 days, her father began to lose his eyesight. 45 minutes after the emergency call, an ambulance arrived at the Shah’s house, but the car was not equipped with enough medical equipment to treat her father. The man later died on the way to the hospital. The cremation facility staff members hand-clasped the dead body of Covid-19 before placing it in the crematorium. Photo: Daily News. Unable to find a place to bury his father’s body, Shah continued to receive bad news about his mother. Her mother passed away just a few hours later in her sleep. By this time, both the Shah and his son had a fever, they were waiting for the results of the Covid-19 test. “None of us have ever seen tragedy and death like what’s happening. The situation is much worse now than last year, so many people die on the street, or die in their own homes, before. was seen by a doctor or got the test results, “said Seema Shukla, a nurse at the Sanjay Gandhi Medical Institute in Lucknow. “From early morning to midnight, my phone rang continuously. My relatives and friends desperately begged for help, they needed everything, ventilators, hospital beds, nurses, oxygen tanks, medicine. men, “said Shukla. Officials warn a new strain of strain is likely to be the cause of the current wave of epidemics, strain B.1.617 was first discovered in India in March. Scientists are doing more research on this strain, suspecting it is more contagious and resistant to vaccines. Jeffrey Barrett, an expert from the Wellcome Sanger Genetic Research Institute, said the number of cases in India gave a very dark picture, but scientists are still uncertain whether the B.1.617 strain is. is the cause or not. Up to this point, experts have mostly criticized a part of the unconscious population and the complacent, subjective attitude of the Indian government for leading to a bad spread in the second wave of epidemics. Vineeta Bal, an expert from the National Institute of Immunology in India, says the cause of the current crisis has even deeper roots. The collapse of the health system is the result of years of government neglect to public health infrastructure, Bal said. Over the years, India’s health spending has lagged far behind the world average. “The problem is not only the current government but also the public health system for the past 50 years. The situation will not be resolved in a single year of crisis. The health system has been left indifferent. very, many years, “said Mrs. Bal. Santosh Kumar, son of party leader Bharatiya Janata in Lucknow, said he was isolated at home with his family. All four members of Mr. Kumar’s family have Covid-19. “The whole system has collapsed. The rest of the government here are in quarantine. People have to find out for themselves what medicines they can take and what they can do to save themselves”, Mr. Kumar said.

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./.