“India's COVID-19 Crisis Is Spiraling Out of Control.

It Didn't Have to Be This Way”

BYLINE: NAINA BAJEKAL  
Source of information: TIME APRIL 28, 2021
8:00PM

https://time.com/5964796/india-covid-19-failure/

Difficult Words

1. PPE- Personal protective equipment

2. Pyres- also known as a funeral pyre, is a structure, usually made of wood, for
burning a body as part of a funeral rite or execution. As a form of cremation, a
body is placed upon or under the pyre, which is then set on fire.

Summary

Dusk is falling in the Indian capital, and the acrid smell of burning bodies fills the
air. It is the evening of April 26, and at a tiny crematorium in a Delhi suburb, seven
funeral pyres are still burning. Scenes of mass death are now unavoidable in what’s
often called the world’s largest democracy. Social media is filled with images of body
bags and urgent requests for medical aid. Indians gasping for breath are being turned
away from overwhelmed hospitals, sometimes simply because they don’t have lab
reports confirming COVID-19 infection. Health workers plead for basic supplies. They
are begging for their PPE’s that can use to avoid contamination with the virus, a
community health worker in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh said that. “At least give us some
masks and gloves. Is there no value to our lives?”

Conclusion

There is no doubt that a humanitarian emergency is unfolding in India right now. 

The stories of a collapsing health system are numerous, with reports of a lack of oxygen
for hospitalized patients and bodies burning on pyres in the streets. India has locally
made vaccines, which are being rolled out, including the AstraZeneca vaccine.  But the
proportion of the population that is immunized is still very low, and alas, there are more
than enough susceptible people for the virus to keep spreading. There has been a lot of
focus on the B1617 variant, which was first detected in India.  There is still a lot to learn
about this variant, such as whether it is more transmissible and thus contributing to an
increased community transmission.  It is a plausible theory, but yet unknown.