The people of India sank into the crisis of the second wave of COVID-19, they do not have many options to continue fighting or surrender to disease.
Sagar Kishore Naharshetivar carried his father with COVID-19 in a truck, driving through the hospitals to seek treatment. In the car, his father did not leave the oxygen tank. Just in the past week, they have tried to pass hospitals in three towns, even from the state of Maharashtra to Telangana.
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.
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