900 PEOPLE A DAY ARRIVING FROM COVID-RAVAGED INDIA
THOUSANDS of people are flying into Britain from India to beat travel restrictions – as the Covid-stricken country’s hospitals and crematoriums buckle under the strain.
An estimated 900 people each day are continuing to arrive in the UK from India, which yesterday reported a record high death toll of 2,020 as well as 294,115 new infections.
Medics have told of overcrowded hospital wards, with some beds shared by two or three people, and queues of patients waiting outside for admission – while pyres of burning bodies have been seen in parks and outdoor areas.
Ambulances have also been left waiting outside crematoriums, holding half a dozen dead bodies each.
India’s Covid surge has been propelled by a new variant first detected there and now confirmed in 21 different countries. The country has been placed on Britain’s travel red list, but the ban on people coming from India does not come into force until 4am on Friday, which has prompted a rush to travel before then.
British nationals will be the exception, but they must quarantine for ten days in government-mandated hotels at a cost of up to £1,750.
Prime minister Boris Johnson, who this week cancelled his trade visit to New Delhi, told last night’s Downing Street briefing the red list move was on a ‘purely precautionary basis’ but said the Indian strain had not yet been deemed ‘a variant of concern’.
He said: ‘I want to stress that, even before that, we have measures in place for everybody coming from India that are very, very tough indeed.’ At least 215 cases of the Indian variant have now been confirmed in Britain, it was reported last night.
Meanwhile, New Delhi has begun a week-long lockdown to prevent the capital’s health system collapsing.
The city of 29million people has fewer than 100 beds with ventilators, and fewer than 150 beds for critical care. It is also suffering from shortages of oxygen and some medicines.
India’s death toll is now 180,530, but experts fear the true number is far higher, and there have been 15.32million cases, second only to the US.
The new variant is believed to spread more easily and may be more lethal than other strains. Medics say twothirds of new patients are under 45.
Khusrav Bajan, a consultant at Mumbai’s PD Hinduja National Hospital, said: ‘We are also seeing children under the ages of 12 and 15 being admitted with symptoms. Last year there were practically no children.’