Extract from The New Daily
The US has loosened its vaccine export ban and the UK is sending urgent medical supplies as the Indian coronavirus crisis worsens, killing one person every four minutes.
India set a new global record on Sunday of the most number of COVID-19 infections in a day, and hospitals across the country are turning away patients after running out of medical oxygen and beds.
India’s number of cases surged by 349,691 in 24 hours, the fourth straight day of record peaks.
People were arranging stretchers and oxygen cylinders outside hospitals as they desperately pleaded for authorities to take patients in, Reuters photographers said.
Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has extended a lockdown in the capital that was due to end on Monday for a week to try and stem the transmission of the virus which is killing one person every four minutes.
Oxygen generation plants
The Indian government has approved plans for more than 500 oxygen generation plants across the country to boost supplies.
Many hospitals across the country are refusing new admissions owing to the uncertainty over oxygen supply, and oxygen-equipped ambulances are in short supply.
Oxygen tankers are being given police escorts as they transport the gas. Social media feeds and WhatsApp groups are full of pleas for oxygen cylinders, reports the BBC.
Normally, healthcare facilities consume about 15 per cent of India’s oxygen supply, with the rest for industrial use. But now nearly 90 per cent of the country’s oxygen supply – 7,500 metric tonnes daily – is being diverted for medical use, according to Rajesh Bhushan, a senior health official.
US joins global aid effort
The United States announced it would immediately provide raw materials for COVID-19 vaccines, medical equipment and protective gear to help India.
“The United States is working around the clock to deploy available resources and supplies,” National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement.
Ms Horne said the materials would help India manufacture the Covishield vaccine.
“The US Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is funding a substantial expansion of manufacturing capability for BioE, the vaccine manufacturer in India, enabling BioE to ramp up to produce at least 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2022,” the US government said.
It will also send therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits and ventilators to India.
The US has faced criticism in India for its export controls on raw materials for vaccines put in place via the Defence Production Act and an associated export embargo in February.
UK sending vital equipment
The UK is sending more than 600 medical devices including oxygen concentrators and ventilators.
The equipment comes from Britain’s surplus stock and the first shipment was due to arrive in New Delhi early on Tuesday, the British foreign ministry said.
The European Union also pledged to help India on Sunday, activating its EU Civil Protection Mechanism as it seeks to send oxygen and medicine after a request from Delhi.
Help from a traditional enemy
Even Pakistan, a traditional foe, offered medical equipment and supplies after the prime minister, Imran Khan, tweeted prayers for a “speedy recovery”.
Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said it offered to provide relief support including ventilators, oxygen supply kits, digital X-ray machines, PPE and related items.
“Humanitarian issues require responses beyond political consideration,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said.
The Indian government did not immediately respond.
Crematoriums and burial grounds unable to keep up
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.
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.
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 virus deaths at just 10.
Burning bodies as they arrive
“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.
-AAP
No comments:
Post a Comment