In just two weeks, India’s second wave of Covid-19 has become disastrous.
The country, which was reporting less than 15,000 cases a day just last month, has been seeing over 200,000 Covid-19 infections a day since April 15. Yesterday (April 19), India reported 273,810 new Covid-19 infections and 1,619 deaths both highest single-day spikes. That takes the active Covid-19 caseload tally up to nearly 2 million.
The current wave started in the western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat and has now engulfed almost the entire country.
Delhi, for instance, had only around 2,800 new infections on April 1, and active infections stood at 10,498. Yesterday, it recorded 25,462 infections and an active caseload of 74,941. That amounts to a 900% increase in new infections and a 700% increase in active cases in just 18 days.
April 19, 2021
Small businesses in India have taken the lead to fight the deadly second wave of Covid-19, even as the country’s political leadership continued to brazenly flout all protocols.
On April 15, a traders’ association in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow announced a voluntarily shut down in some of the city’s main markets to break the Covid-19 chain. While some markets remained shut until April 18, in other areas the lockdown has been extended until April 21.
On April 18, traders in Delhi’s Chandani Chowk market also decided to keep their shops shut until April 25.
The trend of self-imposed lockdown is catching up in the hinterland, too. For example, in some of Gujarat’s villages, traders have announced partial lockdowns following the state government’s failure to handle the covid crisis.
April 19, 2021
Just days after Vaisakhi the harvest festival that marks the start of the Sikh New Year America’s Sikh community was left petrified by a bloody massacre.
Among the eight victims who died in the mass shooting at an Indianapolis FedEx Facility on April 15, four were Sikh.
“I have several family members who work at the particular facility and are traumatised,” community member Komal Chohan, whose 66-year-old grandmother Amarjeet Kaur Johal was among the victims, said in a Sikh Coalition press release. “My
nani (grandmother), my family, and our families should not feel unsafe at work, at their place of worship, or anywhere. Enough is enough our community has been through enough trauma.” Johal was found with a paycheck in hand, ready to leave to celebrate a grandchild’s birthday.
India has been crossing one grim milestone after another this month.
Today (April 15), the country crossed 200,000 new Covid-19 infections a day, for the first time since the pandemic began over a year ago. In the past 24 hours, it also reported 1,038 deaths, taking the total tally up to 173,123.
While India has so far been lauded for keeping Covid-19 fatality rates lower than the rest of the world, a more violent second wave may soon change that. This also leads to the question of whether the government is currently underreporting deaths.
In some states and cities, this may well be true.
In the western state of Gujarat, for instance, regional-language media has been upfront in its criticism of the government, which has been accused of downplaying the Covid-19 situation. The high court in Gujarat has also filed a suo moto case and asked the government to explain how its numbers are grossly different from people’s accounts of the rise in infections and deaths.
April 14, 2021
India is on its way to expand its “vaccine basket.” But is it too little too late?
The central government announced a change in its policy yesterday (April 13), under which Covid-19 vaccines that have received emergency approval elsewhere in the world would be fast tracked in India. Approvals by the US Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency, UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, or Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency Japan would grant vaccine makers faster approvals in India. Additionally, those vaccines that are listed in World Health Organization’s “(emergency use listing) may be granted emergency use approval in India,” the health ministry said in a press release.