Name: Narendra Modi: Covid resurgence in India like being ‘hit by a storm’
Brand: theguardian.com
SKU: theguardian-com-1820
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Narendra Modi: Covid resurgence in India like being ‘hit by a storm’

preview

Prime minister faces mounting anger as new cases exceed 250,000 a day and oxygen supplies run outLast modified on Tue 20 Apr 2021 23.37 EDTIndia’s prime minister, , has warned the country’s resurgence of coronavirus was like being “hit by a storm” as new infections exceeded 250,000 a day, with hospitals at risk of being overwhelmed and cremations in some areas carried out around the clock.His government is facing mounting criticism for its handling of the crisis as oxygen, drugs, tests and hospital beds remain in critically short supply in the worst-hit areas. Modi, however, said that despite the huge scale of the health crisis lockdowns should be seen as a last resort.Fresh concerns over the second wave of Covid-19 came as the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, earlier this week and India was added to the UK’s travel “red list” amid concern over a new variant that has emerged in the country.In a national address on Tuesday, Modi attempted to reassure Indians with promises of vaccines for everyone aged 19 and over and heaping praise on the country’s pharmaceutical industry.“The country is today fighting a very big battle against Covid-19. The situation had improved for a while, but the second Covid-19 wave has come like a storm,” Modi said.“I express my condolences to all those who have lost their loved ones due to Covid-19. Just like a member of your family, I am with you in this hour of sadness. The battle is long and difficult, but we have to overcome it together with our dedication and courage.”Modi’s address came just hours after he met with vaccine manufacturers via video conference and asked them to scale up production.It was unclear, however, how credible that effort was likely to be following last week’s appeal by India’s largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India, for the US president, Joe Biden, “to lift the embargo of raw material exports” to allow more vaccine production.His speech followed mounting anger at the Indian prime minister, who has been criticised for continuing to address tens of thousands of people at state election rallies and for letting Hindu devotees congregate for a festival, with hashtags like #ResignModi and #SuperSpreaderModi trending on Twitter.India’s experience of coronavirus had seemed to buck the trend of other countries, with cases peaking at more than 100,000 a day last year before declining to an almost negligible 10,000 a day in the first months of this year in a country of 1.3 billion people.Cases began roaring back in recent weeks, however, with India apparently unprepared for a second wave on the scale that has emerged.As New Delhi, the capital, rushed to convert schools into hospitals, abandoned field hospitals in hard-hit cities reopened.One key issue has been the shortage of oxygen in many places with India trying to import oxygen while also diverting oxygen supplies from industry to hospitals.New Delhi’s government-run Sanjay Gandhi hospital is increasing its beds for Covid-19 patients from 46 to 160. But R Meneka, the official coordinating the Covid-19 response at the hospital, said he wasn’t sure if the facility had the capacity to provide oxygen to that many beds.The government-run hospital at Burari, an industrial hub in the capital’s outskirts, only had oxygen for two days on Monday, and found that most vendors in the city had run out, said Ramesh Verma, who coordinates the Covid-19 response there. “Every minute, we keep getting hundreds of calls for beds,” he said.Shahid Malik, who works at a small supplier of oxygen, said that the demand for medical oxygen had increased by a factor of 10. His phone has been ringing continuously for two days.By Monday, the shop still had oxygen but no cylinders. He answered each call with the same message: “If you have your own cylinder, come pick up the oxygen. If you don’t, we can’t help you.”Among those who have criticised the response was A Velumani, the chairman and managing director of Thyrocare, one of India’s largest private testing labs, who said that the current demand was three times that of last year.Laboratories were unprepared for the steep rise in demand for testing that came with the current surge, said Velumani, and everyone was “caught with their pants down”.India’s vaccination drive is also struggling with several states flagging shortages, although the federal government has claimed there are enough stocks.On Monday, it said that it would soon expand vaccinations to include every adult in the country, an estimated 900 million people. But with vaccine in short global supply, it isn’t clear when Indian vaccine makers will have the capacity to meet these goals.

Prime minister faces mounting anger as new cases exceed 250,000 a day and oxygen supplies run outLast modified on Tue 20 Apr 2021 23.37 EDTIndia’s prime minister, , has warned the country’s resurgence of coronavirus was like being “hit by a storm” as new infections exceeded 250,000 a day, with hospitals at risk of being overwhelmed and cremations in some areas carried out around the clock.His government is facing mounting criticism for its handling of the crisis as oxygen, drugs, tests and hospital beds remain in critically short supply in the worst-hit areas. Modi, however, said that...

public

Peter Beaumont

TheGuardian.com, formerly known as Guardian.co.uk and Guardian Unlimited, is a British news and media website owned by the Guardian Media Group. It contains nearly all of the content of the newspapers The Guardian and The Observer, as well as a substantial body of web-only work produced by its own staff, including a rolling news service.

Narendra Modi: Covid resurgence in India like being ‘hit by a storm’

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS