[ad_1]
India is transporting emergency air oxygen tanks as it struggles with a catastrophic second wave of Covid-19 infections that on Sunday Prime Minister Narendra Modi said had “shaken the nation”.
New Delhi reported that it had set a world record of 349,000 new infections on Saturday, along with more than 2,700 deaths as the country’s second wave breaks world records.
A total of 190,000 people are said to have died due to Covid-19 in India, although experts believe the actual number of cases and deaths is being widely undervalued while sick patients struggle to get tested and fatalities are reported.
Chronic shortage of beds and oxygen has left hospitals as hot spots as Delhi publicly imploring to get relief, while patients die from lack of treatment, even while queuing outside hospitals waiting to be seen. More than 20 patients died at a private hospital in Delhi, Jaipur Golden, after their oxygen supplies were depleted.
Modi and his government have been criticized for not preparing health systems for the latest wave. On Sunday, in a radio speech, Modi said the central government was fully committed to tackling the crisis. “After successfully fighting the first wave, the country was filled with confidence, but this storm has shaken the nation,” he said.
Public health experts are alarmed by the suspicious role of variant B. 1,617, which was discovered in India last month, to drive the increase. Health officials in the UK, where the strain has also been detected, are studying whether it is more infectious and evasive to the vaccine. The UK last week put India on its “red list” of travel in response to rising cases.
Saturday Air Force India he flew four oxygen containers from Singapore. India is also expected to start importing equipment for emergency oxygen production and supply from other countries such as Germany and the United Arab Emirates.
Workers prepare the beds in a makeshift room of a care center in New Delhi. Analysts have blamed complacency for the shortage of hospital beds © T. Narayan / Bloomberg
Rudra Chaudhuri, director of the Carnegie India think tank, said air bridges had little parallelism in modern Indian history. “In an emergency situation like this, even the spectrum of. . . the landing of planes at Indian bases with oxygen tanks is unprecedented and I can only suspect that there will be more of this in the coming days, “he said.” The fact is that there has been a crisis of the public administration in this country in terms of planning “.
Analysts have blamed complacency for the shortage of beds and health supplies – in a country nicknamed the “pharmacy of the world” for its medical manufacturing skills, as officials could not predict such a serious burden for to the health system. The government is also accused of exacerbating the crisis by holding massive election rallies and allowing a giant religious festival keep on going long after it became clear that the virus was out of control.
Ramachandra Guha, a prominent historian of modern India, wrote that the current wave could be “the most serious crisis the nation has faced since partition,” referring to the bloody separation of the subcontinent in India. and Pakistan in 1947.
In Delhi, which has closed again to try to stop the rise, hospitals have repeatedly been left with only an hour of oxygen and have been forced to issue public “SOS” for refills.
In cities across the country, officials have re-imposed restrictions, hospitals have not been able to keep up with the arrival of sick patients, and dead bodies have flooded cremation and cemeteries.
Even while countries are intervening to help India’s public health response, others like the UK and US have been criticized for their inaction so far.
Indian vaccine manufacturers and analysts blame US for use of war powers restrict exports of certain raw materials used in vaccine production to exacerbate the slow pace of inoculation in the country.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken he said on Twitter on Sunday that Washington “was working closely with our partners in the Indian government, and we will quickly deploy additional support to the people of India.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who faced a critical backlash over India’s decision to cut exports of pharmaceuticals and vaccines during the recent crisis, also promised aid. “Germany is in solidarity with India and is urgently preparing a support mission,” he said in a message the government spokesman sent on Twitter.
[ad_2]
Source link
