“As the previous wave came down, there was in all of us a feeling that this was something which had been dealt with substantially. VijayRaghavan, principal scientific adviser for the Indian government. “No one saw the extent of the surge,” said K. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY Danish Siddiqui/ReutersĪs bodies pile up, India's leaders face rising public anger over second Covid-19 wave Although some states stayed cautious and made preparations for a second wave, none of it was enough – and nobody foresaw the massive coming wave.Ī mass cremation of victims who died due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), is seen at a crematorium ground in New Delhi, India, April 22, 2021. Residents relaxed Covid-safe practices like social distancing, and authorities were looser in their enforcement. The first wave peaked in September, and daily cases declined steadily in the following months the apparent recovery seemed so successful that the country’s health minister declared in early March they were “in the endgame” of the pandemic.Īnd the country’s vaccination drive, among the world’s largest and most ambitious, got underway in January. The second wave hit so much harder because people were unprepared, experts say. That exponential rise has continued into May. Infections began creeping upward in early March, but accelerated rapidly – the number of daily cases by the end of the month had jumped six times higher than at the start of the month. Here’s what you need to know about the crisis in India. “So it’s hard to tell whether the peak will come in the middle of May … or whether it will take a little bit longer.”īut even if the wave peaks and daily case figures decline, scientists warn that the country will continue to see high mortality throughout the month, since deaths lag behind the rise in infections. “There are some epidemiological estimates that say we are closing in on a peak, but these are all projections,” said Chandrika Bahadur, chair of the Lancet Covid-19 Commission India Task Force, on May 3. The government scrambled to respond to the crisis, with countries around the world offering aid. leads the world in both categories with 32.1 million total confirmed cases and 573,381 deaths.A man performs the last rites of a relative who died of Covid-19, as other funeral pyres are seen burning during a mass cremation in New Delhi, India, on April 24. The latest global COVID-19 figures from Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center show 148.7 million confirmed infections, including 3.1 million deaths. The international community has begun shipping critical medical supplies to India, including personal protective equipment, ventilators and oxygen concentrators, which collect atmospheric air and convert it into pure oxygen, along with treatments, diagnostic tests and raw materials needed to manufacture vaccine. Many parks and parking lots have been converted into makeshift crematories that are working day and night to burn dead bodies. The second wave of the coronavirus has pushed India’s health care system to the brink of collapse, with hospitals crammed with so many coronavirus patients that authorities have been forced to convert train cars into COVID-19 isolation wards, while an acute shortage of oxygen continues to aggravate the already desperate situation. The South Asian nation also set a new single-day record for new confirmed infections with 360,960, taking its overall cases to nearly 18 million. The Health Ministry reported 3,293 deaths Wednesday, a new single-day record for fatalities, pushing India’s total death toll to 201,187. READ MORE: India’s coronavirus death toll has topped the 200,000 mark as it continues to be mired in a catastrophic surge of the disease. Crematoriums in India were overwhelmed with bodies and a shortage of space forcing them to carry out mass cremations, Wednesday, April 28, as the country's toll from the coronavirus surged past 200,000.
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