In January, India appeared to have overcome the corona pandemic.
Now the country is in a state of emergency.
What has happened in the meantime?
The reasons are obvious.
Update from April 29, 11:10 a.m.:
India reported another record number of new corona infections on Thursday.
In the past 24 hours, 379,000 people have been infected with the coronavirus.
That comes from the figures of the Indian Ministry of Health.
There are also 3645 new corona deaths.
The total number of corona infections in India has now risen to more than 18 million - second in the world behind the USA.
In addition, more than 200,000 people have died in connection with the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic.
According to the WHO, 38 percent of the corona cases reported worldwide came from India in the past week.
All adults in India should be able to be vaccinated from May.
On Wednesday, the rush to the registration websites was so great that the servers were temporarily overloaded, reported Indian media.
So far, less than ten percent of the approximately 1.3 billion inhabitants have received at least one corona vaccination.
Corona catastrophe in India: "The virus devours people like a monster"
First report from April 28th:
New Delhi / Munich - Terrifying images and headlines spill out into the world from India because the country is again struggling with countless corona victims.
This comes as a surprise because shortly after the turn of the year the government still described itself as the “pharmacy of the world” and the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic appeared to be over.
However, over the subsequent second wave, India lost control - and is now struggling to cope with the situation.
How dramatic the situation is in the populous country (1.36 billion) is made clear by statistics: for a week (April 22), well over 300,000 new corona infections have been reported from India every day, with several thousand fatalities.
In view of the high number of victims, death rituals are even dispensed with in order to keep up with the cremation of the corpses, reports local media.
The metropolis of New Delhi in particular has to struggle with the number of corona victims, stakes have been set up in the city's parking lots because the crematoria are fully occupied.
A coordinator told
AFP
, “People die, die and just die.
If we get any more corpses, we will burn them in the street ”.
"The virus is devouring people in our city like a monster," said Mamtesh Sharma, an official at the city crematorium, according to the
picture
.
The otherwise important Hindu rituals at the funeral would simply be skipped - there is no time.
Coronavirus: Indian situation as a threatening scenario for Germany?
International aid transports are now helping to cushion the serious situation.
The first aid deliveries from Great Britain arrived on Tuesday, including ventilators and oxygen concentrators.
Other large nations such as Germany, the USA, Canada and the World Health Organization (WHO) are also planning aid deliveries for the second most populous country on earth (after China.)
Important questions also from a German point of view: What are the causes of the relapse in India and what does it mean for other countries on earth?
Has a mutation struck against which the corona vaccines are ineffective?
Virologist Christian Drosten does not see panic as appropriate.
From the small database available in India it can be concluded that the mutant B.1.617 was not the only cause of the violent wave of infections.
“It's more of a mixed virus population,” says Drosten in the “Coronavirus Update” podcast at NDR-Info.
Rather, there are other factors that are decisive for the corona development in India.
The most important points:
India: Three factors are probably decisive for a drastic corona relapse
Premature return to everyday life:
The population
felt safe
too quickly after the virus appeared to be defeated. At the end of January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) brokered the victory over Corona for the Indian population. There were again mass events and religious festivals without masks or distance. Now the head of state has found that a Covid-19 wave is rolling across the country, which he describes on the radio as a "storm that shakes the nation".
Too few vaccinations:
only just under ten percent of the Indian population has received at least one dose of vaccine so far - even though the country itself produces vaccine on a large scale and even other countries have been supplied with vaccine.
According to a study, herd immunity has not yet been achieved in India.
Medical level:
As Christian Drosten explained, the basic health of the population in India is also less good than in countries like Germany, where medical care is much higher.
This is probably also due to a lower level of hygiene, which is also shown by the extent in the metropolis of New Delhi, where many millions of people move in a confined space.
Corona in India: virus mutant also dangerous for Europe?
Biontech boss comments
In addition to Drosten, the Biontech boss also doubts that the Indian virus variant represents a great danger for Germany, for example.
The vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer works against the Indian virus variant.
According to Ugur Sahin, tests are still ongoing, but he is “confident” about the containment against the mutation B.1.617.
The Indian mutant is characterized by changes that are already known from other Corona variants, he explained.
In total, Biontech and Pfizer have already tested more than 30 corona variants, and the vaccine works in almost all of them as in the original form.
What, by the way, many people do not yet have on their radar: Even if you get vaccinated against Corona, vaccination boosts will probably be necessary.
(PF)
List of rubric lists: © Naveen Sharma / imago-images
