Day after day, India is sinking.
The country recorded 2,023 deaths from Covid-19 on Wednesday and 295,041 new cases, one of the highest daily tolls in the world since the start of the pandemic, according to official data.
This brings the toll according to figures from the Ministry of Health to 15.6 million infections in India and 182,553 deaths since the appearance of the virus.
Read alsoCovid-19: why India worries the whole world
These 300,000 contaminations, in a gigantic country which tests unevenly, are three times more than the record recorded on September 17, 2020 during what the Indian authorities consider to be the first wave.
And never in a year had the daily death toll exceeded the 2,000 mark.
This explosion led Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak for the first time on television in weeks.
"The situation was under control a few weeks ago and the second wave came like a hurricane," he said.
Confronted "once again (to) a big battle", the Indians must do more, he asked his compatriots, to avoid new confinements.
Addressing the nation on the COVID-19 situation.
https://t.co/rmIUo0gkbm
- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 20, 2021
In recent weeks, millions of people have taken part in the Hindu Kumbh Mela pilgrimage, political rallies, lavish weddings and sporting events, spreading the virus at high speed. Entire states have had to reconfigure their populations on weekdays. -ends, in particular Uttar Pradesh, which has 200 million inhabitants, or enact curfews with numerous daytime closures as in Bombay.
Since Monday evening, Delhi has been confined for a week, all non-essential stores are closed.
On Wednesday, the state of Haryana, in the north of the country, decided to bring the summer school holidays forward by nearly three weeks, which normally begin in mid-May.
The Oxygen Race
Everywhere, it is a race for oxygen supplies that is contested.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who isolated himself on Tuesday after his wife tested positive, tweeted late Tuesday that some hospitals in the megalopolis had "only a few hours of oxygen left" in reserve.
VIDEO.
Overwhelmed hospitals, oxygen shortage, worrying variant… India in the middle of a nightmare
Public hospitals in the megalopolis of 20 million people, whose non-essential shops have been closed for a week since Monday evening, have confirmed that they have only 8 to 24 hours of reserves, while private hospitals appear be able to hold that 4 to 5 hours. When a supply arrives, like at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute or Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in New Delhi, it can last a day. Day-to-day operation which augurs only for a worsening of mortality. Delhi on Tuesday recorded 28,395 new cases - thirty times the daily winter contaminations - and 277 deaths, its highest level since the start of the pandemic. One in three people tested for the coronavirus has tested positive, the state government said,which increases the pressure on health infrastructure.
The tension is so high that the Amarleela hospital in the Janakpuri district after making a distress call for its 32 patients, saw the arrival of eleven oxygen tanks brought ... by the police.
#WATCH |
Delhi Police brought Oxygen cylinders to Amarleela Hospital in Janakpuri today from an Oxygen supplier in Kirti Nagar upon receiving distress call from the hospital.
Lives of 32 # COVID19 patients were in danger.
Police arranged 11 cylinders so far
(Source: Delhi Police) pic.twitter.com/6onUZJ231x
- ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2021
“Central and state governments, as well as the private sector, are working together to ensure that oxygen is supplied to people who need it. We are trying to increase the production and supply of oxygen throughout the country, ”wanted to reassure Narendra Modi on Tuesday evening.
Oxygen is not the only one missing. On social networks, the population is increasing the calls for help to find beds, as well as the antiviral drug Remdevisir, especially in Delhi and in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh. Last night there were no beds for covid patients in around 80 of Delhi's 142 hospitals, according to government data. But a businessman interviewed by Reuters who made calls to find a place was told that the computer system informing hospitals showed that there were no more covid beds available.
