❌ More than two fifths of the world's Covid cases are now being reported from India.
Cases have increased five-fold since the start of April, with no sign of levelling off
❌ The spread of the virus has seen the city's services overrun, with crematoriums and hospitals unable to deal with the pressure
🛏️ Just 24 ICU beds out of 4,794 are available for Covid patients
🌬️ The situation has been made worse by short supply of oxygen
📈While official stats are staggering, there are fears this is a significant underestimation.
🗣️ Officials are facing accusations of downplaying stats.
"I can easily say that around 1,000 Covid cases are getting funerals every day" the manager of one crematorium in Delhi said
⬆️ Modelling by expert epidemiologists suggests the true death toll may be as much as 5x higher.
Such uncertainty makes comparing India's data to other countries difficult, not least because of its population of over 1.3bn telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/2…
📉Vaccines have quickly led to a reduction in cases, hospitalisations and deaths in some countries.
💉 India has provided just 10 doses for every 100 people.
❌ The vaccine effect will not have had a tangible impact yet
India's second wave of coronavirus has:
📌 Devastated the nation
📌 Collapsed the health system
and the death toll is thought to be significantly higher than official figures.
❌ Patients across India are paying extortionate black market prices for oxygen and essential medicines.
🆘 Despite emergency ventilators and oxygen concentrators arriving from the UK and other nations, there continues to be critical oxygen shortages telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/2…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
❌ Alongside vaccines, experts say the authorities should have prepared the underfunded healthcare system for the new surge of the virus, lining up supplies like oxygen and planning how to get them to hospitals
🌍 India is known as the “world’s pharmacy” for its vaccine production capacity. But getting jabs into people’s arms domestically has proved more challenging.
📏 While the Government is confident that restrictions on meeting others will cease on June 21, it appears likely that some form of social distancing will stay in place.
Pubs have warned that if distancing rules stay in place, it will be a disaster
🍻Venues that rely on full houses to profit are awaiting results of the Gov review into the 1m distancing rule.
❌ Chief executive of UK Hospitality, said 'Unless the Gov lifts restrictions in full our businesses will remain unviable... they will not be able to make a profit'