Corona crisis deepens as countries promise medical aid

NEW DELHI: India ordered armed forces on Monday to help tackle surging new COVID cases that are overwhelming hospitals, as countries including Britain, Germany and the United States pledged to send urgent medical aid.

In a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said oxygen would be released to hospitals from armed forces reserves and retired medical military personnel would join COVID-19 health facilities. And where possible, military medical infrastructure will be made available to civilians, a government statement said, as new coronavirus infections hit a record peak for a fifth day.

“Air, Rail, Road & Sea; Heaven & earth are being moved to overcome challenges thrown up by this wave of COVID-19,” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Twitter. In some of the worst-hit cities, bodies were being burnt in makeshift facilities offering mass cremations.

The patchy curbs, complicated by local elections and mass festival gatherings, could prompt breakouts elsewhere, as infections rose by 3,52,991 in last 24 hours, with crowded hospitals running out of oxygen supplies and beds.

“Currently the hospital is in beg-andborrow mode and it is an extreme crisis situation,” said a spokesman for the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi. In Moscow, which expects 50 million doses of its Sputnik V vaccine to be made each month in India, a Kremlin spokesman expressed concern over the situation.

Virologists said more infectious variants of the virus, including an Indian one, have fuelled the resurgence. People have been told to stay indoors and follow hygiene protocols. “Please don’t invite people into your home... It has become clearer that the transmissibility is faster,” said senior health official Vinod Kumar Paul.

Vaccine demand has outpaced supply as the inoculation campaign widened this month, while companies struggle to boost output, partly because of shortage of raw material at the AstraZeneca dose.