‘Death came like a storm’ amid outbreak
India orders military support as COVID rages
India’s devastating COVID-19 epidemic, which is killing thousands of people each day in cities such as Delhi and Mumbai, is now spreading uncontrollably in its most vulnerable rural hinterland, home to 800 million Indians.
Decades of underfunding in the health-care system has left rural areas facing widespread shortages of oxygen, tests, medication and, in many areas, a medical professional, creating a vacuum of critical care.
India ordered its armed forces on Monday to help tackle surging new coronavirus infections, as nations including Britain, Germany and the United States pledged urgent medical aid.
The situation is “beyond heartbreaking,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, adding that WHO is sending 2,600 staff members and supplies including oxygen concentrator devices.
The imposition of lockdowns in cities over the past two weeks sent thousands of migrant workers back to their home villages, some carrying the virus with them.
Thakurtola, in the central state of Chhattisgarh, is one such village that has been devastated by coronavirus.
Its 1,000 residents work largely as subsistence farmers and are poor by Indian standards, and have strong family ties. Residents speak of a wave of grief that has overcome the village.
Ramesh Yadav is mourning the loss of his brother, Poonam, who returned at the start of the month after Nagpur, the city he worked in, was put under lockdown. He returned complaining of a severe cough and flu-like symptoms, which quickly worsened. His family took him to see the village doctor but, as in the case for two thirds of doctors in rural India, he had no qualifications. “He started saying that there was no need for a COVID-19 test and just to take medicines, like paracetamol,” Ramesh said.
Overnight, Poonam began gasping for air but there was no oxygen supply in the village. “His death came like a storm, everything happened so quickly,” said Ramesh.
It was never confirmed that Poonam had COVID because the village did not have any testing kits. But officials sampled 48 people he had come into contact with and 25 tested positive.
A shortage of kits and testing delays means most deaths are not recorded, and the actual daily toll is estimated to be at least 20 times higher than official figure of 195,123. Motilal Sinha, a leading social activist in Chhattisgarh, said: “Today, the situation is that between 15 and 20 per cent of people from every village in Rajnandgaon (district) are COVID-19 positive but these cases aren’t on any government record.”
The epidemic is believed to be driven by new, more contagious variants.