NEW DELHI (AP) – New Delhi imposed a week-long deadlock on Monday night to prevent the collapse of the Indian capital’s health system, which authorities say has been pushed to its limit amid an explosive wave of coronavirus cases .
In known scenes from the waves elsewhere, ambulances catapulted from one hospital to another, trying to find an empty bed over the weekend, while patients lined up outside the medical units waiting to be let in. Ambulances also went outside the crematoria, carrying half a dozen bodies each.
“People continue to arrive in a near-collapse situation,” said Dr. Suresh Kumar, who heads Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, one of New Delhi’s largest hospitals for treating patients with COVID-19.
Most desperately need oxygen, Kumar said. But the city is facing shortages of oxygen and some medicines, according to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who told reporters that the new strict measures were necessary to “prevent the collapse of the health system,” which had “reached its limit.”
Just months after India thought it saw the worst of the pandemic“The virus is now spreading faster than at any other time,” said Bhramar Mukherjee, a biostatistician at the University of Michigan, following infections in India.
The growth is devastating for India and has weighed heavily on global efforts to end the pandemic because the country is a major producer of vaccines, but has been forced to delay fire exports abroad, especially hampering campaigns in developing countries.
The increase in the number of cases comes at a time when the total number of deaths caused by coronavirus exceeded 3 million people on Saturday, amid repeated failures in the global vaccination campaign and a deep crisis in places beyond India, such as Brazil and France.
India reported more than 270,000 infections on Monday, the largest daily increase since the pandemic began. It has now recorded more than 15 million infections and more than 178,000 deaths. Experts agree that even these figures are probably insufficient. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has canceled a trip to New Delhi amid rising cases.
New Delhi, a city of 29 million people, has less than 100 beds with fans and less than 150 beds available for patients in need of critical care. Similar scenes played in other parts of the vast country. In the northern Indian state of Jammu, the weekly average of COVID-19 cases has increased 14 times in the last month.
In response, officials again began to impose strict measures. The Indian capital was closed over the weekend, but now authorities are extending this for a week: all shops and factories will close, except for those that offer essential services such as food stories. People should not leave their homes, except for a small number of reasons, such as seeking medical care. They will also be allowed to travel to airports or train stations.
They were the strictest measures imposed since India’s harsh blockade last year, which lasted months and left deep scars. Since then, politicians have been reluctant to even speak. When similar measures were imposed in the state of Mahrashtra, home to the financial capital of Mumbai, in recent days, officials refused to call it a blockade. These restrictions must last 15 days.
Kejriwal called for calm, especially among migrant workers who suffered especially during the previous closure, saying it would be a “small blockage”.
But many feared it would mean economic ruin. New Delhi-based worker Amrit Tripathi was among the thousands who drove home for miles after India suddenly announced a harsh and nationwide blockade in 2020. “We will starve,” he said, if the current blockade is extended.
Doctors and officials say measures are needed to ease the pressure on the fragile health care system, which has been underfunded for decades. Failure to prepare for the current wave has left hospitals in New Delhi and other major cities, collapsing under the pressure of growing infections.
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Hussain reported from the Srinagar. Associated Press writer Neha Mehrotra contributed to this report.
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