India’s health systems buckle under new COVID-19 wave

[新德里]印度有充分的理由希望重复去年的3月至5月锁定，尽管它摧毁经济。

Despite the country’s huge population, the number of cases remained manageable while being showered with global attention as India became the main hub for vaccine production.

Then hubris set in.

What else could explain the failure to heed warnings issued in November by a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare onCOVID-19，包括可能缺氧的短缺？该委员会还警告说严重不足government病床。

同时，整个政治制度都是围绕选举集会和宗教节日库姆·梅拉（Kumbh Mela）的，这是3月11日至4月17日在Haridwar的恒河中的大规模下降。

Kumbh Mela in 2019. Image credit:忍者（（CC由2.0).

India for all its scientific manpower couldn’t foresee that there were new infective strains of COVID-19 spreading around, and there was a general sense that “If Modi is leading the rallies, he must be doing something right”.

Over the past year, Prime Minister Modi has grown a long beard, giving himself the aura of a mystic. And the crowds seem to love him for it. His last electoral rally in West Bengal in March was easily the biggest ever. But, he was persuaded to call off the second rally when the number of COVID-19 cases began to soar.

4月28日，印度在全球冠状病毒病例中的单日增长最高，在24小时内，新感染360,960个新感染，将该国的Covid-19 tall升至近1800万，而总死亡人数超过201,000。据卫生部称，仅在4月，印度就报告了超过400万例新病例和25,000多人死亡。data。

在最近举行的新闻发布会上指出的令人担忧的方面Vinod Paul，，，，member of the镍钛Aayog，，，，India’s official public政策think tank, was that Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities along with peri-urban areas have recorded recent spikes in the spread of infection which would leave rural areas with weakhealthinfrastructure易受伤害的崩溃。

As India struggles to contain the current surge, help has been arriving from the US, UK and other allies, with Washington asking its nearest bases to air-lift oxygen generators, concentrators, Remdesivir anti-viral drugs and raw materials for vaccines in the next 48 hours. UAE is sending a huge shipment of oxygen concentrators and Saudi Arabia large number of oxygen generators to India.

“美国已经确定了印度生产Covishield疫苗所需的特定原材料的来源，这将立即用于印度。”陈述NSC女发言人艾米丽·霍恩（Emily Horne）发表在印度国家安全顾问阿吉特·多瓦尔（Ajit Doval）和NSA Jake Sullivan之间的讨论。

声明说，美国正在“全天候部署可用的资源和用品”。

US President Joe Biden said in a tweet: “Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, we are determined to help India in its time of need.”

Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, we are determined to help India in its time of need.https://t.co/szwrj0ep3y

- 拜登总统（@potus）April 25, 2021

尽管看到其他国家的支持是令人心动的，但该解决方案必须来自大规模疫苗。到目前为止，还没有证据表明印度哀悼的未来是不确定的未来。

这件作品由Scidev.net的亚太桌子制作。