COVID-19 is becoming India’s most fearsome challenge in public health sector. India registered more than 300,000 new cases in a single day on Thursday making it a world record.

Almost entire health system is on the brink of a massive collapse as hospitals have run out of wards, morgues have been run out of spaces to keep dead bodies, dead bodies are being cremated on the road sides, there is no oxygen in hospitals and vaccine is out of the stock.

If all of this was not enough, the political elite in India is taking this crisis to a whole next level by holding massive political rallies where there is a complete violation of COVID SOPs is visible to the world.

According to a report published by British media outlet The Guardian;

“The country has descended into a tragedy of unprecedented proportions. Almost 1.6 million cases have been registered in a week, bringing total cases to more than 15 million. In the space of just 12 days, the Covid positivity rate doubled to 17%, while in Delhi it hit 30%. Hospitals across the country have filled to capacity but this time it is predominately the young taking up the beds; in Delhi, 65% of cases are under 40 years old.

While the unprecedented spread of the virus has been partly blamed on a more contagious variant that has emerged in India, Modi’s government has also been accused of failures of political leadership from the top, with lax attitudes emulated by state and local leaders from all parties and even health officials across the country, which led many to falsely believe in recent months that India had defeated Covid.”

On April 22nd, 2021 India registered a whooping 314,644 new cases, the highest anywhere in the world in a single day while more than 2100 people perished in ongoing crisis.

Amid this crisis is ensuing another even graver crisis i.e. Nationwide shortage of Oxygen. According to BCC News, In India, crowds have formed outside hospitals in major cities which are filled to capacity. A number of people have died while waiting for oxygen. Oxygen supplies are critical not only for COVID-19 patients but those who are suffering from illnesses other than COVID-19 are in dire need of Oxygen. New Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister, Manish Sisodia told on Thursday that many of the hospitals in the Indian Capital have run out of Oxygen stock.

On the other hand, Families are waiting hours to perform funeral rites, Reuters news agency reports, with at least one Delhi crematorium resorting to building pyres in its car park in order to cope with the numbers arriving.

The situation in the other states like Maharashtra are also the same. The Financial hub of India, Mumbai, is among the COVID hotspots in the country. Maharashtra has also reported more deaths from the virus than any other state, with 67,468. India has suffered nearly 185,000 deaths with Covid, according to Johns Hopkins University.

India’s most fearsome challenge has raised some questions on the priorities of Indian state as well. While the people are running trends on social media sites like Twitter asking for helping India with Oxygen supplies, the ruling elite within India is more interested in holding political rallies endangering millions of others.

News Desk