NEW DELHI (AP) – Seema Gandotra, suffering from coronavirus, breathed in an ambulance for 10 hours, trying unsuccessfully to find an open bed at six hospitals in India’s vast capital. When she was admitted, it was too late, and the 51-year-old died hours later.
Rajiv Tiwari, whose oxygen levels began to drop after testing positive for the virus, has the opposite problem: he has identified an open bed, but the Lucknow resident of Uttar Pradesh cannot reach it. “There is no ambulance to take me to the hospital,” he said.
Such tragedies are known from growth in other parts of the world – but were largely unknown in India, which managed to prevent the collapse of its health system last year through a severe blockade.. But now there are daily events in the vast country, which is facing the largest increase in the pandemic to date and is following its chronically underfunded health system.
Tests are delayed. Medical oxygen is scarce. Hospitals are insufficient and overflowing. Intensive care units are full. Almost all fans are used, and the dead pile up at crematoria and cemeteries. India has seen more than 250,000 new infections and more than 1,700 deaths in the last 24 hours alone, and the UK has announced a travel ban for most visitors to the country this week. Overall, India has reported more than 15 million cases and about 180,000 deaths – and experts say those numbers are probably undervalued.
“The rise in infections has come like a storm and a great battle is coming,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a speech to the nation on Tuesday night.
India’s wave of cases is contributing to an increase in infections worldwide, as many places are facing deep crises, such as Brazil and France, partially fueled by new, more contagious variants, including one first detected in India.. More than a year after the pandemic, deaths worldwide have exceeded 3 million and are rising again, reaching an average of almost 12,000 a day. At the same time, vaccination campaigns have failed in many places – and India’s growth has only worsened: the country is a major producer of vaccines, but has been forced to delay fire deliveries to focus on its domestic demand.
Bhramar Mukherjee, a biostatistician at the University of Michigan who has been watching India’s pandemic, said India has failed to learn from growth elsewhere and take anticipatory action.
When new infections began to subside in September, authorities believed the worst of the pandemic was over. Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said in March that the country had entered the “end of the game” – but was already behind the curve: weekly average cases in Maharashtra, home to the financial capital of Mumbai, had tripled in the previous month. .
Mukherjee was among those who called on authorities to take advantage of the low number of cases earlier this year to speed up vaccinations. Instead, officials prevented themselves from limiting huge gatherings during Hindu festivals and refused to delay the ongoing elections in the eastern state of West Bengal, where experts fear large, unmasked crowds at rallies will fuel the spread of the virus.
Now, India’s two largest cities have imposed strict blockades, the pain of which will fall excessively on the poor. Many have already left the big cities, fearing the recurrence of last year, when a sudden blockade cost millions of migrant workers jobs in cities and forced many to go to their villages of origin or risk starvation.
In his speech, Prime Minister Modi called on states to avoid blocking by creating microcontainment zones to control outbreaks instead.
New Delhi, the capital, is in a hurry to turn schools into hospitals. Field hospitals in heavily affected cities that have been abandoned are resurrected. India is trying to import oxygen and has started redirecting oxygen supplies from industry to the healthcare system.
It remains to be seen whether these frantic efforts will be enough. Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, run by the New Delhi government, is increasing its beds for patients with COVID-19 from 46 to 160. But R. Meneka, the official coordinating the COVID-19 response at the hospital, said he was not sure if the facility had the capacity. to supply oxygen to so many beds.
The government hospital in Burari, an industrial center on the outskirts of the capital, had oxygen only two days a month and found that most of the sellers in the city had run out, said Ramesh Verma, who coordinates the COVID-19 response there.
“Every minute, we continue to receive hundreds of calls for beds,” he said.
Kamla Devi, a 71-year-old diabetic, was rushed to a hospital in New Delhi when her blood sugar dropped last week. When she returned home, her levels dropped again, but this time, there were no beds. She died before she could be tested for the virus. “If you have a crown (virus) or if you don’t, it doesn’t matter. Hospitals have no place for you, “said Dharmendra Kumar, her son.
The labs were unprepared for the sudden increase in demand for testing that came with the current growth and everyone was “caught with their pants down,” said A. Velumani, president and CEO of Thyrocare, one of the largest labs. private testing in India. He said the current demand was three times higher than last year.
India’s massive vaccination effort is also struggling. Several states have reported the lack, although the federal government has said there are enough stocks.
India said last week that it would allow the use of all COVID-19 photos which have been illuminated in green by the World Health Organization or by regulators in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom or Japan. On Monday, he said he would soon expand vaccinations to include about 900 million adults in the country. But given the vaccines available in the world, it is not clear when vaccine manufacturers in India will be able to meet these goals. Indian vaccine maker Bharat Biotech says it is increasing up to 700 million doses each year.
Meanwhile, Shahid Malik, who works for a small oxygen supplier, said medical oxygen demand has increased by a factor of 10. His phone has been ringing continuously for two days. Until Monday, the store still had oxygen, but no bottles.
He answered every call with the same message: “If you have your own cylinder, come and get oxygen. If not, we can’t help you. ”
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Associated Press Biswajeet Banerjee from Lucknow, Krutika Pathi from Bengaluru and Ashok Sharma from New Delhi contributed.
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The Associated Press Department of Health and Science receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. AP is solely responsible for all content.