New Delhi, India, stalled as Covid-19 pushes healthcare system to its limits

“I’m not saying the system has collapsed, but it has reached its limits,” he said.

The latest wave of cases has risen much faster than the country’s monthly growth last year, moving the country to the center of a pandemic that has killed at least three million people worldwide. India reported over 200,000 new infections daily for five days in a row, exceeding 270,000 months.

On Monday, Delhi reported 25,463 infections in the past 24 hours, nearly three times the daily high of 8,500 cases during a peak in November.

Starting at 22:00 local time, shops and businesses were forced to close, and people’s movements were limited to accessing and providing essential services. Some states, including Maharashtra, which hosts Mumbai’s financial capital, have already imposed time-outs and limited gatherings of up to four people. Shopping malls, restaurants, bars and places of worship have been closed in some places, but New Delhi is the first to reintroduce drastic measures such as those used last spring.

The rapidly growing number has also added urgency to one of the largest vaccination campaigns in the world. India has administered 120 million doses to its nearly 1.4 billion population. On Monday, the government said it would extend vaccinations to anyone over the age of 18 from May 1. Doses have previously been restricted to people 45 and older.

Public health experts have pointed to a combination of growth-fueling factors, including the circulation of new variants that appear to be more infectious than the original virus and the relaxation of precautions such as wearing masks and social distancing, as the number of cases has decreased. the last months .

“We just let our guard down,” said Dr. Amir Ullah Khan, research director at the Center for Development Policy and Practice, a Hyderabad-based think tank.

Dr Khan highlighted potential over-the-counter events, such as the recent political rallies ahead of the West Bengal state elections, which drew tens of thousands of people, mostly unmasked. Hundreds of thousands of devout Hindus flocked along the Ganges this month for the Kumbh Mela festival, during which people bathe in the river to wash away their sins.

“No political leader has been seen wearing a mask or even talking about it,” Dr. Khan said. “The signal that came out was that ‘everything is over. We recovered. ”

A number of highly contagious variants of the original coronavirus have also circulated throughout the country. Last month, the Indian Ministry of Health said that variants from the UK, South Africa and Brazil were found in the samples collected, along with a new “double-mutant variant” that could have come from India.

By mid-April, the UK version had become the dominant option in northern Punjab, public health experts said. The double-mutant variant had taken over as the most common in the state of Maharashtra.

Little is known so far about the double-mutant variant, which gets its name because it has two mutations seen separately in other variants, but not in the same variant. The variant was detected in 21 countries, according to researchers from four universities that track viral offspring. Genetic sequencing has highlighted cases in the US, Germany, Turkey and Nigeria, among others.

Doctors in India say they notice differences both in the rate at which infections spread throughout the population and in the ages of people who go to hospitals, this time affecting more young people.

“This wave is huge,” said Dr Parv Mittal, a doctor at a private hospital in Delhi. “Earlier, the elderly became infected. This time, the younger population is at risk. ”

At Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan, Delhi’s largest government hospital, young adults and children arrive with high fever and severe body aches and varying levels of consciousness, said Dr. Suresh Kumar, the hospital’s medical superintendent.

Indian doctors and public health experts say they are working with huge gaps in their knowledge because the government is not doing enough to track or research new options.

“From a clinical point of view, we believe the virus could have become more infectious,” said Dr. Sunil Arora, who works at a government hospital and serves as secretary general of the Federation of Resident Physicians Association. “But we do not have enough data or evidence to establish the exact reasons for the current growth.”

Most hospitals in Delhi are slipping under a wave of patients with Covid-19. Over 80% of the city’s 19,322 Covid-19 beds are occupied.

Mr Kejriwal, Delhi’s prime minister, said the blockade of the city was intended to suppress the rate of transmission and allow time for more oxygen, medicines and ventilators.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has canceled a planned visit to India, scheduled for later this month, due to the deteriorating situation there. Britain said on Friday it would refuse entry to anyone arriving from India, with exemptions for British and Irish citizens and people of any nationality who are long-term residents.

On Monday, in the Delhi district of Defense Colony, cars blocked the parking lot of a local market, while people were hurrying to pick up supplies for their homes. Lines formed outside a local pharmacy and parent and pop grocery stores. The cars clogged the exits to the parking lots, and the drivers sounded their horns.

After a nationwide deadlock affected India’s economy last year, the government has shown little appetite for repeating such radical measures. Instead, each state was left to find its own way to address the outbreaks. Following this new blockade in Delhi, experts said a cascade of other Indian states could follow.

“It will encourage other chief ministers to do the same,” said Dr. Khan.

—Jason Douglas of London contributed to this article.

Write to Vibhuti Agarwal at [email protected] and Shan Li at [email protected]