India caseload tops 9 million, filling clinics
Intensive care wards in New Delhi’s hospitals are nearly at capacity, and the city’s main crematorium is packed, as the coronavirus has surged in the Indian capital and the country hit a grim milestone Friday, recording 9 million infections.
While the pace of recorded new cases overall in the country of 1.3 billion appears to be slowing, experts have cautioned that official figures may be offering false hope since many infections may be going undetected.
“The next four weeks are crucial. The road is very bumpy,” said Dr. S. K. Sarin, director of New Delhi’s Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences.
The capital’s health system is under tremendous strain: Government figures showed 90% of the critical care beds with ventilators designated for virus patients and 86% of critical care beds without ventilators were full.
At Aakash Healthcare, a private hospital in New Delhi, all the critical care beds were full, and many patients were waiting outside the hospital. In a particularly worrying sign, young people were increasingly coming in with severe infections.
The government is considering increasing restrictions in markets. But, so far, officials have held off because they are wary of inflicting any more damage to the economy. In the meantime, the fine for not wearing a mask was increased fourfold to 2,000 rupees ($ 27) — a huge sum for the millions of Indians who live on less than $ 2 per day.
In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, authorities announced a weekend curfew beginning Friday in the city of Ahmedabad to curb infections.
India is No. 3 in the world for reported deaths, behind the United States and Brazil, and No. 2 in terms of recorded infections.