A medical worker tends to a patient suffering from COVID-19, at Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, May 7, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Adnan Abidi
The pandemic reached India fifteen months ago – unassumingly at first, in small, localised outbreaks. Its first wave ebbed from October after taking an unknown number of lives and livelihoods. The second wave took hold in March, one year after the first. As a rising spate of infections and deaths submerges much of the country, it seems reasonable to ask what lessons, if any, we’ve learned in the interim.
The first wave was marked by chronic shortages of beds, equipment, doctors and nurses, with people queuing (and dying) outside hospitals. Doctors and nurses, especially in public hospitals, were forced to work under exceptionally difficult conditions, but this does nothing to mitigate the innumerable incidents of ingrained callousness that came to light during this period: patients overflowing from beds to floors and corridors; many left withou
The service, which began officially on Tuesday, is free. (Representational image)
New Delhi:
It s not the most conventional way to get to hospital, but with Delhi running short of ambulances, authorities have turned some of the city s ubiquitous three-wheeled autorickshaws into makeshift ambulances to ferry COVID-19 patients. Actual ambulances are hard to come by as a devastating surge in cases overwhelms the healthcare system.
Families have had to make their own arrangements including paying exorbitant amounts to private ambulance operators to take the sick to hospital.
The Delhi government, in association with a non-profit organization, has kitted out more than a dozen autorickshaws with hand sanitizers and face masks, while oxygen cylinders are provided on a need basis.
On Friday, India recorded a new record of 414,188 confirmed cases in the past 24 hours.
The tally has risen to more than 21.4 million since the pandemic began with faint hopes of the curve going down quickly.
The Health Ministry also reported 3915 additional deaths, bringing the total to 234,083.
Experts believe both figures are an undercount.
The official daily death count has stayed over 3000 for the past 10 days.
Over the past month, nearly a dozen out of Indiaâs 28 federal states have announced less stringent restrictions than the nationwide lockdown imposed for two months in March last year.
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A woman with COVID-19 gets oxygen support at an oxygen langar in New Delhi. Many religious communities have stepped up to urgently distribute more oxygen to desparate citizens as India s COVID-19 toll mounts.(Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
India Covid crisis: Delhi s popular autorickshaws become ambulances
Reuters/New Delhi
(Reuters) If everyone stays home because they are scared, then who is going to help those in need?
It s not the most conventional way to get to hospital, but with Delhi running short of ambulances, authorities have turned some of the city s ubiquitous three-wheeled autorickshaws into makeshift ambulances to ferry Covid-19 patients.
Actual ambulances are hard to come by as a devastating surge in cases overwhelms the healthcare system. Families have had to make their own arrangements including paying exorbitant amounts to private ambulance operators to take the sick to hospital.
Actual ambulances are hard to come by as devastating surge in cases in India overwhelms healthcare system
Reuters
May 06, 2021
Drivers stand near autorickshaw ambulances, prepared to transfer people suffering from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and their relatives for free, in New Delhi, India May 5, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS
It s not the most conventional way to get to hospital, but with Delhi running short of ambulances, authorities have turned some of the city s ubiquitous three-wheeled autorickshaws into makeshift ambulances to ferry Covid-19 patients.
Actual ambulances are hard to come by as a devastating surge in cases overwhelms the healthcare system. Families have had to make their own arrangements including paying exorbitant amounts to private ambulance operators to take the sick to hospital.