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India tops over 200K COVID-19 cases for 7th straight day

Oxygen is in high demand in India. © AFP
Oxygen is in high demand in India. © AFP

The Washington Post is reporting that on Wednesday, just 10 ICU beds remain open in the capital, New Delhi, a city of 17 million people. In some cities across the country, crematoriums are running around the clock and the bodies of the dead are piling up.

At one hospital in Nashik, a city in western India, at least 22 patients on ventilators died after an oxygen supply tank ruptured, leaving the critically ill patients gasping for breath. Suraj Mandhare, a senior district official, said a faulty valve caused the oxygen to leak.

Delhi was placed in lock-down on Monday for a week, and Maharashtra state, the center of the surge and home to the financial capital, Mumbai, further tightened restrictions on shops and home deliveries on Tuesday, reports The Guardian.

India has recorded over 15 million coronavirus cases and is second only to the United States. With more than 180,000 deaths, it ranks fourth in the world. Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, described the surge in coronavirus cases on Tuesday as “like being hit by a storm.”

A police officer at a checkpoint during a previous weekend lockdown in New Delhi

A police officer at a checkpoint during a previous weekend lockdown in New Delhi
Sajjad HUSSAIN, AFP


What is behind the surge in India?
With the staggering numbers of new cases reported daily over the past few weeks, scientists in India are now trying to pinpoint what is behind the unprecedented surge. The thing is – Surges are also being seen in some European countries such as Germany and France.

Surges in the coronavirus are also being seen in Brazil and the United States, but the surge of cases in India are now some of the highest ever recorded for any country and are not far off a peak of 300,000 cases seen in the United States on January 2, 2021.

Looking deeper into India’s surging cases, we find that back in February, the country seemed to have the virus under control, with daily cases running about 10,000 a day. This is considered low for a country of 1.3 billion people.

“The second wave has made the last one look like a ripple in a bathtub,” says Zarir Udwadia, a clinician-researcher in pulmonary medicine at P D Hinduja Hospital & Medical Research Centre in Mumbai, who spoke to Nature. He describes a “nightmarish” situation at hospitals, where beds and treatments are in extremely short supply.

People scramble to board a bus in New Delhi to head to their hometowns as a week-long lockdown comes...

People scramble to board a bus in New Delhi to head to their hometowns as a week-long lockdown comes into effect in the Indian capital due to a spike in coronavirus cases
Sajjad HUSSAIN, AFP


During previous global surges in the virus – India was able to prevent a collapse in its health system through a harsh lock-down. But the surges are now everyday occurrences in the vast country, the Associated Press reports, while the country watches its chronically underfunded health system crumble.

Another potential reason behind the surge is that Prime Minister Modi has eased the initial lock-downs too quickly. Modi has resisted suggestions that nationwide measures should be reintroduced has attracted fire for holding rallies without proper social distancing.

Hindu festivals have also been allowed to go ahead, most notably the massive Kumbh Mela gathering in Haridwar which has attracted as many as 25 million people since January – with most COVID-19 restrictions being ignored.

Then there are the variants – The UK’s B.1.1.7 variant is running rampant across the country, however, a new and potentially concerning variant first identified in India late last year, known as B.1.617, has become dominant in the state of Maharashtra.

The B.1.517 variant is very concerning because it has two mutations that have been linked to increased transmissibility and an ability to evade immune protection. This variant has now been detected in at least 20 other countries.

However, Srinath Reddy, an epidemiologist, and head of the Public Health Foundation of India in New Delhi argues that people letting their guards down is a bigger driver. “The pandemic resurfaced in a fully open society where people were mixing and moving and traveling,” he says.

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We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our dear friend Karen Graham, who served as Editor-at-Large at Digital Journal. She was 78 years old. Karen's view of what is happening in our world was colored by her love of history and how the past influences events taking place today. Her belief in humankind's part in the care of the planet and our environment has led her to focus on the need for action in dealing with climate change. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, "Journalism is merely history's first draft." Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.

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