Translate Covid-19 in India: ‘The virus swallowed us like a monster’

In the context of a severe lack of medical oxygen, families in India are trying to find a way to send a loved one with Covid-19 to run from one hospital to another to seek treatment. But often their efforts end in vain.
In India, hospitals are always in a state of overcrowding, full of seats. Many patients are lying in the hallways, even from the streets, waiting for their turn.

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.