In India, COVID-19 continues to rage out of control today. While more than 320,000 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Tuesday, its health system, who has been on the brink of collapse, has started getting support from neighbouring and foreign nations.
The large number of COVID-related deaths and diagnoses has, as usual, been plaguing India’s health system, which is in a state of collapse. On Tuesday, at least 323,000 new infections were confirmed. The huge number of confirmed cases has brought India to the second place, just behind the United States, becoming a country which has recorded the second largest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world.
The health ministry also reported another 2,771 deaths in the past day, and data shows around 115 Indians are succumbing to the disease every hour. The latest fatalities pushed India’s deaths to 197,897, right behind the U.S., Brazil and Mexico.
The World Health Organisation’s chief said this is truly “beyond heartbreaking”. Despite this, he told people that only by making a concerted effort to fight against the disease can the world succeed in the fight against COVID-19.
Experts say the new variants of the coronavirus are the main culprits in the recent spike in the number of confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses in India.
Oxygen is stretched thin in many hospitals and medical centres across the nation. And bad things never come singly, as hospitals across the country are dealing with a lack of beds. Now, train carriages are coming in handy, as authorities are utilizing them by turning the carriages into isolation wards, and that can literally provide more beds for COVID patients.
Foreign and neighbouring countries have lent a helping hand, either via sending breathing machines, ICU gear or oxygen generators. France, the United States, Russia and Pakistan are among those who offered help. And the United States is also planning to share raw materials for the AstraZeneca vaccine by diverting some U.S. orders to the vaccine production sites in India.
Meantime, there is word India still won’t be out of the woods yet even after it has got support from other nations. Delhi has been cremating bodies of COVID victims day and night. The number of death bodies waiting to be cremated is so large authorities have to cut down trees in city parts for kindling.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged Indians to get vaccinated as soon as possible, so as to curb the outbreaks of COVID-19.
This virus has tested the authorities’ medical emergency preparedness. Faced with even more threats from COVID-19, authorities and government officials will have to make more efforts to contain the spread of the disease so as to prevent it from literally carrying out a massacre.
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