Patients die without oxygen amid Delhi COVID-19 surge
Crematoriums and burial grounds are being overwhelmed by the devastating new surge of infections; lockdown extended in Delhi till May 3; Modi says India shaken by new coronavirus ‘storm’
India’s crematoriums and burial grounds are being overwhelmed by the devastating new surge of infections tearing through the populous country with terrifying speed, depleting the supply of life-saving oxygen to critical levels and leaving patients to die while waiting in line to see doctors.
For the fourth straight day, India on Sunday set a global daily record of new infections, spurred by an insidious, new variant that emerged here, undermining the government’s premature claims of victory over the pandemic.
The 349,691 confirmed cases over the past day brought India’s total to more than 16.9 million, behind only the United States. The Health Ministry reported another 2,767 deaths in the past 24 hours, pushing India’s COVID-19 fatalities to 192,311.
Experts say that toll could be a huge undercount, as suspected cases are not included, and many deaths from the infection are being attributed to underlying conditions.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday extended the lockdown in the national capital for one more week till May 3 amid the surge in the coronavirus cases.
The situation is far from normal in Delhi due to which the Delhi government has extended the lockdown for another week.
“Çovid-19 has wreaked havoc in Delhi. A lot of deliberation has been done on extending the lockdown for another week. The lockdown has been imposed in Delhi till May 3, 5am,” Kejriwal said.
“During the lockdown we saw that the infection rate has gone up to nearly 36 per cent... till date, we have not seen such an infection rate in Delhi.
“It has come down in the last two days, on Sunday it is nearly 29 per cent.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged all citizens to take COVID-19 vaccines and exercise caution, saying a “storm” of infections had shaken the country.
India has reported more than 300,000 new cases each day for the past four days, more than anywhere else in the world since the pandemic began, piling pressure on the public health system.
“Our spirits were high ater successfully dealing with the first wave,” Modi said in a radio address. “But this storm has shaken the nation.”
The crisis unfolding in India is most visceral in its graveyards and crematoriums, and in heartbreaking images of gasping patients dying on their way to hospitals due to lack of oxygen.
Burial grounds in the Indian capital New Delhi are running out of space and bright, glowing funeral pyres light up the night sky in other badly hit cities.
In central Bhopal city, some crematoriums have increased their capacity from dozens of pyres to more than 50. Yet, officials say, there are still hours-long waits.
At the city’s Bhadbhada Vishram Ghat crematorium, workers said they cremated more than 110 people on Saturday, even as government figures in the entire city of 1.8 million put the total number of deaths at just 10.
“The virus is swallowing our city’s people like a monster,” said Mamtesh Sharma, an official at the site.
The unprecedented rush of bodies has forced the crematorium to skip individual ceremonies and exhaustive rituals that Hindus believe release the soul from the cycle of rebirth.
“We are just burning bodies as they arrive,” said Sharma. “It is as if we are in the middle of a war.”
The head gravedigger at New Delhi’s largest Muslim cemetery, where 1,000 people have been buried during the pandemic, said more bodies are arriving now than last year.
“I fear we will run out of space very soon,” said Mohammad Shameem.
The situation is equally grim at unbearably full hospitals, where desperate people are dying in line, sometimes on the roads outside, waiting to see doctors.
Health officials are scrambling to expand critical care units and stock up on dwindling supplies of oxygen.
Hospitals and patients alike are struggling to procure scarce medical equipment that is being sold at an exponential markup.