Covid Crisis in India: 269 doctors died in 2nd wave

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) said that 269 doctors across the country have lost their lives due to Covid-19 infection in the second wave of coronavirus pandemic as total caseload surged past 25 million yesterday.

The IMA said Bihar suffered the largest number of casualties (78) followed by Uttar Pradesh (37) and Delhi (28). "The surge has been very devastating," its secretary-general, Jayesh Lele, told Reuters.

State-wise data by IMA showed 22 doctors died due to Covid-19 in Andhra Pradesh, 19 in Telangana, 14 each in Maharashtra and West Bengal, and 11 fatalities were reported in Tamil Nadu. It added that 10 doctors also died in Odisha, eight in Karnataka, and five in Madhya Pradesh.

According to the IMA Covid-19 registry, 748 doctors succumbed to the disease in the first wave of the pandemic.

India's total tally of coronavirus cases now stands at 25.23 million, health ministry data showed, following 263,533 new infections over the past 24 hours, while fatalities rose by a record 4,329. The official total death toll is now 278,719.

The government said about 98% of India's population of 1.3 billion remained susceptible to infections.

Only the United States has had more cases, or a worse single day death toll, when it lost 5,444 people on February 12. But whereas the epidemic peaked months ago in the United States, there is no certainty that India's infections have.

Though the official count shows new infections subsiding, there are fears that the new, highly infectious B.1.617 variant, first found in India, is out of control and that many cases are going unreported due to lack of testing.

Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, has suffered a 30% increase in infections since May 2, while the total number of vaccinations it administered last week was just 1.1 million - half the total of a month earlier.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal yesterday urged the government to immediately cancel all air services with Singapore, saying a new strain of coronavirus in that country is said to be "very dangerous" for children.

This new strain of virus could be in India in the form of a third wave, he said in a tweet.

Kejriwal also said children whose parents died because of Covid-19 will get Rs 2,500 per month (till they turn 25) and their education will be paid for by the Delhi government.

'GOD'S MERCY'

In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, home to more people than Brazil, rural areas have been severely hit, as healthcare systems have struggled to cope.

Incensed by scarce testing and tracing, a state court said on Monday the situation was turning to "God's mercy" and hurtling towards a third wave.

"If this is the state of affairs of five districts, one can guess where we are leading people of this state to, i.e. (a) third wave of the pandemic," said the Allahabad High Court.

Chandrakant Lahariya, a public policy and health systems expert, said in the Hindustan Times newspaper that India's vaccine policy urgently needed a reset.

"For six weeks now, India's vaccination drive has been struggling," he said. "The political leadership should give a free hand to technical experts to decide and implement new strategies."

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said continuous efforts were being made to increase the supply of vaccine on a very large scale.

"The Health Ministry is streamlining the system and process of vaccination. Attempts are being made to give a schedule of the next 15 days to the states in advance," Modi said.

EXPORT OF COVID JABS

India is unlikely to resume major exports of Covid-19 vaccines until at least October as it diverts shots for domestic use, three government sources said, a longer-than-expected delay set to worsen supply shortages from the global COVAX initiative.

The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's biggest vaccine maker producing the AstraZeneca vaccine, responded by saying that it hoped to restart deliveries to COVAX and other countries by the end of this year.

"We would like to reiterate that we have never exported vaccines at the cost of the people of India and remain committed to do everything we can in the support of the vaccination drive in the country," SII said in a statement.

Battling the world's biggest jump in coronavirus infections, India halted vaccine exports a month ago after donating or selling more than 66 million doses. The move has left countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and many in Africa scrambling for alternate supplies.

US President Joe Biden said on Monday his country would export at least 20 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech , Moderna and Johnson & Johnson shots, on top of 60 million AstraZeneca doses he had already planned to give to other countries.

Biden's move came as WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned the world has reached a situation of "vaccine apartheid", calling on wealthier nations and vaccine producers to increase vaccine sharing.