as case rates hit their peak last month in cities such as delhi, crematoriums have set up impromptu pyres to service traffic jams of ambulances delivering new bodies, and the associated press reported that authorities were getting requests to fell trees in city parks for emergency kindling.
“before the pandemic, we used to cremate eight to 10 people (daily),” jitender singh shunty, head of a crematorium in new delhi, told a cnn crew on may 1 . “now, we are cremating 100 to 120 a day.” in gujarat, crematoria had begun to melt and collapse under the stresses of running all-out 24 hours a day.
advertisement
advertisement
for a disease whose chief risk to public health is that it overwhelms healthcare systems, india’s hospitals have been utterly ravaged. in major centres such as delhi, hospitals are full and turning away new patients, leading to scenes of covid-19 patients gathered outside on the street and gasping for air as their families beg for oxygen. “we have been roaming around for three days searching for a bed,” one man, seated next to his immobile wife on the pavement, told reuters . in some areas, oxygen tankers have needed to be placed under police escort to protect them from looters.
“popular belief in the country, from the public to policymakers, was that india will not have a second wave — and unfortunately that let the guard down,” k. srinath reddy, an epidemiologist who advises the indian government on covid-19, told npr in late april.
on the eve of the covid-19 pandemic, india had one doctor for every 1,445 citizens . in canada, that figure is closer to one doctor for every 384 citizens .
advertisement
“i believe the actual number of people dying of covid is two to three times higher than what the government is reporting,” manas gumta, general secretary of the association of health service doctors in west bengal, told the guardian in late april .
this week, analysis by the new york times attempted to guess india’s true death rate based on what is known about covid-19 fatality numbers. their conclusion was that the disease has killed anywhere between 600,000 and 4.2 million .