Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
Hospitals in India have run out of beds, oxygen, medical, therapeutic and protective equipment, all during the second wave of COVID-19 that has left in its wake an average of 400 thousand new infections daily and three thousand deaths daily, such misfortune is catalogued as the worst health tragedy in the history of the country.
For Dr. Jalil Parkar, one of India's leading pulmonologists, this catastrophe "is worse than a tsunami. It's like a nuclear bomb.
This was pointed out during a press conference held by Ethnic Media ServicesIn his speech, he blamed the second wave on the residents themselves, who, he said, tired of the confinement established by the government to contain the pandemic, began to leave.
In addition to the weariness, there were various religious events, including the Kumbh Mela, which is held every 12 years, and in which more than 50 million people came to the small city of Haridwar, Uttarakhand, as well as political demonstrations.
The formula was perfect for disaster, Parkar knows well, who along with his wife suffered severe reactions to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and who after great effort, managed to pull through.
Indian media and public health experts believe that the official numbers are not close to reality, as for many, the figure is five to 10 times higher.
Images of what is happening in the main cities of the country show how complicated the tragedy has become, where the government has been, by far, surpassed.
"Every encounter has started to feel like a game of Russian roulette. Every time you go out, you feel like this could be the moment you bring the virus home," noted journalist Sandip Roy.
The immediate future does not look better for the Asian country, vaccination is progressing very slowly, because of a country of 1.2 billion people, only 26 million have been immunized, which means that only 2 percent of the population have received at least one dose of one of the two vaccines produced in the country: Covishield, the AstraZeneca vaccine, and Covaxin, local from India.
A long tunnel with no end in sight
Dr. Bhramar Mukherjee, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan, said that, according to a recent study, it is likely that for every positive case of COVID-19, there are 10 to 20 undetected cases.
Mutations of the virus complicate matters. Unlike the first wave of the virus in India, this second period has swept through, as younger and younger people began arriving in hospitals.
"The second wave is more lethal and infectious because of the mutation of the virus. If the vaccine is given to the majority of people, infection rates and deaths will definitely decrease," said Rosemarie De Souza, a physician in the intensive care unit of Mumbai's Nair Hospital.
According to her, much younger patients are dying from the virus without pre-existing comorbidities, a situation that could be due to India's double mutant variant, B.1.617, which is much more contagious and lethal than its predecessors.
Help on the way
Like other countries, the United States is sending aid to India to help it cope better with the disaster.
Thus, Senator Mark Warner, co-chair of the Senate India Caucus, recalled that a $100 million aid package has been created, which has begun to be channeled to India in personal protective equipment, concentrators and oxygen tanks, among other items.
He added that the U.S. also agreed to release 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
There is still a long way to go in the recovery of this country. However, the resilience and spirit of India will be indispensable to return to walk the streets without fear of contagion.
