IN the stock market, a chart with prices starting from the bottom and reaching new highs in a matter of days is called parabolic. This is exactly how India’s COVID-19 chart looks like today.
From a weekly average of 12,800 in the first week of February, the figure increased to 18,300 in March. From 70,000 in the first week of April, the number surged to a mind-boggling 310,000 on April 24. How can this happen in a modern, rich country which is one of the leading manufacturers of medicine and vaccines?
India, with a population of 1.39 billion, has these latest figures on the pandemic: 17,313,163 cases, 14,304,382 recoveries, and 195,123 deaths.
The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported that India’s catastrophic surge — the worst of the pandemic and unfolding in the world’s second most populous country — led the world’s biggest pandemic day on April 22, with 875,510 cases reported. The number was well over the previous single-day high reported on Dec. 20, 2020, according to the World Health Organization online dashboard.
‘Before the resurgence of COVID-19, India was exporting tens of millions of AstraZeneca shots produced domestically by its Serum Institute.’
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus could not have assessed it better when he said, “the situation in India is beyond heartbreaking.”
The WHO is doing everything it can, the United States is sending millions of doses of AstraZeneca, China is allocating huge doses of its Sinovac, Australia has sent giant oxygen tanks, etc. Still, many Indian families are taking to social media to beg for oxygen supplies, locations of available hospital beds, even as crematoriums and hospitals are overwhelmed.
While India is prostrate, the world suffers, too. This is because the COVAX program, which is administered by the WHO, the Gavi vaccine alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), now has a dwindling stock of vaccines because of the Indian crisis. The COVAX provides equitable access of vaccines to all nations, with a particular focus on 92 poor countries.
Before the resurgence of COVID-19, India was exporting tens of millions of AstraZeneca shots produced domestically by its Serum Institute. That volume of exports is now gone, because India itself needs the vaccines very badly. The WHO said this has left COVAX 90 million doses short that had been intended for 60 low-income countries in March and April.
We have to say this because it is a fact, no matter who gets hurt. The Indian public health crisis is caused directly by millions of people gathering and bathing in the Ganges River during the weeks-long Mahakumbh from February to April this year.
The festival is held only once every 12 years. Organizers said more than 150 million visitors gathered there, as many Hindus believe bathing in the river during this period absolves people of sins and brings salvation from the cycle of life and death.
