Covid Crisis in India: It’s a wake-up call for all

The World Health Organization issued a stark warning to nations yesterday, saying that relaxing Covid measures too early could spark a "perfect storm" allowing cases to spiral -- as seen in India.  

New infections and deaths are soaring in India, which experts have said can in part be blamed on people's disregards for protective measures and mass gatherings in the nation of 1.3 billion people.

India reported 379,257 new infections and 3,645 new deaths yesterday, health ministry data showed, the highest number of fatalities in a single day since the start of the pandemic. India's total Covid-19 cases passed 18 million yesterday.

The pandemic has claimed at least 3.1 million lives around the world, with India accounting for more than 200,000 fatalities.

The head of WHO Europe said countries should not make the mistake of relaxing restrictions too soon, as India did, to avoid similar new waves of infection.

"When personal protective measures are being relaxed, when there are mass gatherings, when there are more contagious variants and the vaccination coverage is still low this can create a perfect storm in any country," Hans Kluge told reporters yesterday.

"It is very important to realise that the situation in India can happen anywhere."

Meanwhile, John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said the situation is wake-up call for every African nation.

"We are watching with total disbelief … What is happening in India cannot be ignored by our continent," he told reporters yesterday.

The world's second most populous nation is in deep crisis, with hospitals and morgues overwhelmed.

Each day, thousands of Indians search frantically for hospital beds and life-saving oxygen for sick relatives, using social media apps and personal contacts. Hospital beds that become available, especially in intensive care units (ICUs), are snapped up in minutes.

"The ferocity of the second wave took everyone by surprise," K Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific adviser to the government, was quoted as saying in the Indian Express newspaper.

"While we were all aware of second waves in other countries, we had vaccines at hand, and no indications from modelling exercises suggested the scale of the surge."

India's military has begun moving key supplies, such as oxygen, across the nation and will open its healthcare facilities to civilians. Hotels and railway coaches have been converted into critical care facilities to make up for the shortage of hospital beds.

India's best hope is to vaccinate its vast population, experts say, and on Wednesday it opened registration for all above the age of 18 to receive shots from tomorrow.

But although it is the world's biggest producer of vaccines, India does not have the stocks for the estimated 800 million now eligible.

Many who tried to sign up for vaccination said they failed, complaining on social media of being unable to get a slot or even to simply get on the website, as it repeatedly crashed.

Only about 9% of India's population of about 1.4 billion has received a dose since the vaccination campaign began in January.

India will receive a first batch of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine on May 1. Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund, which markets Sputnik V globally, has signed deals with five Indian manufacturers for more than 850 million vaccine doses a year.

AID STARTS ARRIVING

More than 40 countries have committed to sending vital medical aid -– particularly oxygen supplies amid a severe shortage -- to the country, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said yesterday.

The supplies include almost 550 oxygen-generating plants, more than 4,000 oxygen concentrators, 10,000 oxygen cylinders as well as 17 cryogenic tankers.

Hundreds of thousands of doses of Covid-19 treatment drugs Remdesivir, Favipiravir and Tocilizumab, as well as raw materials to produce vaccines and remdesivir, were also being sent.

Two planes from Russia, carrying 20 oxygen concentrators, 75 ventilators, 150 bedside monitors, and 22 tonnes of medicine, have arrived in Delhi.

The United States is sending supplies worth more than $100 million, including 1,000 oxygen cylinders, 15 million N95 masks and 1 million rapid diagnostic tests, the White House said on Wednesday.

The United States also has redirected its own order of AstraZeneca manufacturing supplies to India, to allow it to make more than 20 million doses, the White House said.

Britain announced it was sending three oxygen generation units to India. The units, dubbed oxygen factories, are each the size of a shipping container and can produce 500 litres of oxygen per minute, the UK government said.

Germany will send 120 ventilators tomorrow, and a mobile oxygen production facility next week, its defence ministry said.

Meanwhile, the US State Department issued a travel advisory on Wednesday against travel to India because of the pandemic and advised its citizens to leave the country.

Italy yesterday tightened the rules on people arriving from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, while extending quarantine regulations for Europeans, reports AFP.