We’re preparing for the worst
Doctors in one of India's top private hospitals shuffle through the intensive care unit wearing full protective suits. Every bed is occupied by coronavirus patients, and fear is building that the worst is still to come.
"We don't know when this is going to peak," Dr Deven Juneja told AFP during a pause from his rounds at the Max Smart Super Speciality Hospital in New Delhi, as heart monitors beeped throughout the ward.
"All of us are hoping for the best, but we are mentally and physically prepared for the worst."
Indian authorities have in recent days been loosening their months-long lockdown on people movement that had been aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. However they were forced into the easing for economic reasons and, while people across the country of 1.3 billion resume more normal travel, the number of infections is soaring.
There are almost 10,000 new confirmed cases every day and declared infections are now over 275,000 -- the fifth highest in the world.
Officially there have been nearly 8,000 coronavirus deaths, although the true number is widely believed to far higher.
Newspapers carry stories of patients dying after being denied care. The government is turning cricket stadiums into field hospitals. Crematoriums are struggling to cope.
In New Delhi, the situation is particularly dire with the city government this week predicting the caseload will balloon 20 fold to more than half a million by the end of July, which the health care system appears woefully ill-prepared for.
Ambulances arrive constantly at the Max hospital, which like other private facilities in the teeming city of 20 million people has been ordered by the government to set aside 20 percent of its beds for coronavirus patients.
With families not allowed to see virus patients, Juneja has to double up as a caregiver, although he is unable to even hold his patients' hands.
Juneja said the surge had started to be felt over the past few days.
Vinita Thakur, a nurse in a covid ward, said wearing the protective suits for long hours in the hot Indian summer required immense "physical and mental courage". "There is a lot of sweating and because of that we get burns and rashes. But we have to do it, we are on the frontline, we can't make any excuses."
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