The second wave of the 2019 coronavirus epidemic in India continues to worsen, with the number of new cases on a single day reaching a record high, from an average of more than 10,000 cases per day in mid-February 2021 to more than 200,000 and 300,000 new cases per day in mid-April, with the number of deaths also increasing sharply. 310,909 new cases were added on a single day on April 22, once again setting a new record for India and breaking the single-day record for all countries worldwide. The record of new cases was broken.
Central News Agency reported: the epidemic continues to worsen, resulting in hospitals across India to treat patients in intensive care beds, drugs, oxygen supplies are all tight, and even a number of provincial and municipal governments prohibit oxygen transport vehicles from leaving the provincial territory, and also prohibit the transport of local oxygen out of the provincial territory. According to the Supreme Court of India, a total of six high courts across India are hearing claims involving the crisis in the supply of oxygen, hospital beds and antiviral drugs. The New Delhi city government recently accused a neighboring province of blocking oxygen supplies to New Delhi; the neighboring government accused New Delhi of “hijacking” oxygen cylinders from one of their hospitals. The Delhi High Court criticized the central government for what it has been doing all day. Why hasn’t it come to its senses?
Medical supplies are in short supply everywhere, but India’s central government has been slow to come up with an appropriate response. The Supreme Court of India held a hearing on Wednesday, asking the central government to formulate a set of national policies on issues related to oxygen supply, essential drugs and vaccination. Prime Minister Modi, who has been under public criticism and court pressure, urgently cancelled his election campaign in West Bengal and stayed in the capital to chair a high-level meeting on oxygen supply via video, instructing that faster ways of transporting oxygen to the provinces and cities, including by train, should be found. The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Home Affairs have finally intervened to prohibit any provincial or municipal government from blocking the supply of oxygen to other provinces and cities.
The second wave of the epidemic in India was a tsunami of lessons, and by the end of 2020, Indian officials announced that India had reversed the curve of the epidemic and that the situation appeared to be rosy, said BBC correspondent Biswas in India, adding that the ecstasy that the virus had been defeated had escalated since the end of last year. Politicians, policy makers, and parts of the media all believed that India was truly out of danger. As a major producer of vaccines, the Indian media hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the “vaccine guru.
As authorities and people let down their guard, religious events and political elections were held, and top officials and religious leaders attended large gatherings of people, many without taking basic precautions, including wearing masks and keeping their distance. There are many problems, from central government to local government negligence, to people not complying with precautionary regulations. The Modi government has been criticized by experts and opposition parties for ignoring the epidemic and holding election rallies in the face of the epidemic, as it focused on winning the West Bengal elections.
The dual variant strain of the virus found in India is highly infectious, and since the end of last year, the number of cases of people infected with the dual variant virus in India has been increasing. It was only during January of this year that India took action and coordinated laboratories to speed up their operations, which began in February. “Unfortunately, the second wave has already started.”
The double variant of the Indian strain of the virus has spread abroad, and five cases have been detected in Japan. British health officials are currently investigating whether the Indian double mutant virus is more likely to spread and evade the immune protection offered by the vaccine.
India, with a population of more than 1 billion, had received only about 130 million doses of the vaccine by late April, largely limited to priority groups such as health care workers, front-line workers, and those over 45 years of age, far from enough to create a requirement for herd immunity. Despite the suspension of vaccine exports in late March, by mid-April there was a shortage of vaccine in some parts of India, with hundreds of vaccination centers closed and some stocked with enough vaccine for only a day or two.
As of May 1, all Indian adults over the age of 18 will be able to receive the new crown vaccine, but concerns about the vaccine supply gap have not disappeared.
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