Thread by @loyndsview

"A lethal, fast-paced second wave of the coronavirus pandemic has brought #India’s health care systems to the verge of collapse & is putting millions of lives & livelihoods at risk."

nytimes.com/2021/04/20/opi… #CovidIndia

1/ "The newspapers & social media are scrolls of horror & failure of the health system. There are reports of lines of ambulances with patients waiting outside the largest Covid facility in #Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat because ventilator beds & oxygen had run out."

2/ "At a crematory in the central city of #Bhopal, residents reported having not seen as many cremations since 1984, when a gas leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in the city killed around 5,000 people."

3/ "On Tuesday around 11 a.m. in #Delhi, the national capital, with more than 18 million people, only 40 #ICU beds were available for #Covid19 patients."

4/ "#India has had a total of 15.3 million reported coronavirus cases to date, w reported deaths to date of 180,000 people. A survey funded by the leading government body for medical research, indicated that there were roughly 30 infections corresponding to each reported case."

5/ "Most reports about the collapsing #healthcaresystem are from major Indian cities. We know little about the devastation in rural #India, where about 70% of India’s 1.3 billion people live and where there are far fewer hospital beds and medical personnel."

6/ "#India’s rapid slide into this unprecedented crisis is a direct result of complacency & lack of preparation by the govt. As the number of cases dropped significantly in mid-February, the Indian govt & various policymakers, cheered on by a pliant, triumphalist media...."

7/ "...prematurely declared victory against the pandemic. By early March, senior government ministers were speaking about the endgame of the pandemic in India."

8/ "Cricket matches where tens of thousands of spectators filled stadiums were allowed, & movie theaters were opened. The govt did nothing to prevent enormous religious gatherings such as the ongoing #KumbhMela, a festival in Haridwar in the northern state of #Uttarakhand...."

9/ "...where millions of Hindus gathered for a dip in the #RiverGanges. Unsurprisingly, #Covid19 cases in Haridwar have soared."

10/ "Despite the rising cases, numerous public rallies were held, with tens of thousands of people cramped together without masks."

11/ "Although precise data on the correlation between political campaigning and the #Covid19 spike is unavailable, the number of cases in #WestBengal increased tenfold from early to mid-April — several times the rates in the crowded cities of #Mumbai and #Delhi."

12/ "Indians started mixing widely and playing down the threat also because there is an unfounded sense among a large number of Indians that exposure to pollution and microbes had endowed them with superior #immunity."

13/ "The proportion of people who died after a #Covid19 diagnosis is lower in #India compared with many other countries. But that is simply because 65 percent of Indians are under 35 years old."

14/ "Indians with #Covid19 ages 40 to 70 were more likely to have died in #India because of the high prevalence of #comorbidities like hypertension, diabetes and respiratory disorders."

15/ "By Tuesday, despite widening vaccine eligibility to those above 45 years old, only 1.3% of #India’s population had been fully vaccinated against #Covid19."

16/ "At the current vaccination rate, it will take till the end of 2022 to fully vaccinate 70% of the Indian population, the approximate level needed for achieving #herdimmunity."

17/ "Finally, there is the uncertainty introduced by new #variants &, with them, the risk of #reinfections that might not be stopped by the vaccines."

18/ "There is anecdotal evidence that the new wave of #Covid19 cases in #India is attacking a younger population, including children, and resulting in more rapid disease progression than seen earlier."

19/ "There is need for systematic evidence to link the upswing in cases and easier #transmissibility and lethality of novel variants. One variant, #B1617, that may have originated in #India is spreading widely & has been found in other countries."