Thread by @loyndsview

"Each day, the government reports more than 300,000 new infections, a world record, & #India is now seeing more new infections than any other country by far, almost half of all new cases in a global surge."

nytimes.com/2021/04/24/wor… #CovidIndia

1. "Millions of people refuse to even step outside — their fear of catching the virus is that extreme. Accounts from around the country tell of the sick being left to gasp for air as they wait at chaotic hospitals that are running out of lifesaving oxygen."

2. "The sudden surge in recent weeks, with an insidious newer variant possibly playing a role, is casting increasing doubt on India’s official Covid19 death toll of nearly 200,000, with more than 2,000 people dying every day."

3. “'It’s a complete massacre of data,' said Bhramar Mukherjee, an #epidemiologist at the University of Michigan who has been following #India closely. 'From all the modeling we’ve done, we believe the true number of deaths is two to five times what is being reported.'”

4. "At one of the large cremation grounds in #Ahmedabad, a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat, bright orange fires light up the night sky, burning 24 hours a day, like an industrial plant that never shuts down."

5. "On Satrday, officials reported nearly 350,000 new infections, & the deaths contind to rise. At one hospital in #NewDelhi...doctors said 20 patients in a critical care unit had died after oxygen pressure dropped. The dr.s blamed the deaths on the citys acute oxygen shortage."

6. "Months ago, #India seemed to be doing remarkably well w the pandemic. After a harsh initial lockdown early last year was eased, the country did not register the frightening case-count & death numbers that sent other big countries into crisis mode."

7. "Many officials and ordinary citizens stopped taking precautions, acting as if the worst days were over."

8. "Now, countless Indians are turning to social media to send out heartbreaking SOS messages for a hospital bed, medicine, some oxygen to breathe. ‘#NationalEmergency,’ blared a banner headline in one of India’s leading papers, The Hindustan Times."

9. "Across #India, mass #cremations are now taking place. Sometimes dozens of fires go up at once."

10. "...India’s Covid vaccine campaign is struggling: Less than 10% of Indians have gotten even one dose, despite India being the world’s leading vaccine manufacturer. India’s dire needs are already having ripple effects across the world, especially for poorer countries."

11. "It had planned to ship out millions of doses; now, given the country’s stark #vaccination shortfall, exports have essentially been shut down, leaving other nations with far fewer doses than they had expected."

12. "Doctors worry that the runaway surge is being at least partly driven by the emergence of a virus variant known as the 'double mutant,' #B1617, because it contains #geneticmutations found in two other difficult-to-control versions of the coronavirus."

13. "One of the mutations is present in the highly contagious variant that ripped through California earlier this year. The other #mutation is similar to one found in the South African #variant and believed to make the virus more resistant to vaccines."

14. "The result could be the worst of both worlds, faster-spreading & less controllable. This is worrying scientists around the globe, who see people starting to relax their guard in well-inoculated countries...."

15. "...even as huge setbacks in #India, #Brazil & other places raise the likelihood that the coronavirus will mutate in ways that could outflank the current vaccines."

16. “'Many deaths are not getting recorded and they are increasing every day,' said Dr. G.C. Gautam, a cardiologist based in Bhopal. He said that officials were doing this because 'they don’t want to create panic.'”

17. "India’s population is, on average, much younger than in most Western nations. Experts say that is the most likely reason that deaths per million in India had seemed relatively low. But the number is quickly climbing."

18. "#Cremations are an important part of Hindu burial rituals, seen as a way to free the soul from the body. Those working at the burning grounds said they were utterly exhausted and could never remember so many people dying in such a short span of time."

19. "In Surat, an industrial city in #Gujarat, the grills used to burn bodies have been operating so relentlessly that the iron on some has actually melted...In Kanpur, in Uttar Pradesh...bodies are now being burned in some of the citys parks; the #crematories are that backed up"

20. "In #Ahmedabad, at the Vadaj crematory, huge smokestacks pump out black smoke. Mr. Suresh, a clerk, sits in a tiny office, the door closed firmly shut."