WHEN-GALURU Fewer ambulances at crematoria, climbing discharge numbers, falling infection figures, improving +ty rate... is the worst behind us? It's not a question of 'if', only... Hope. There is a glimmer of it as noticed, ironically, from those on the ground at crematoria. Tanveer Ahmed of Mercy Angels, the NGO which has been helping with cremations and burials of covid bodies for the last year says, that his volunteers have been noticing a slight dip in the number of bodies coming to the crematoria. "Compared to last week’s numbers, the number of deaths seems to have decreased in the last four days. However, the numbers are very small but we are hoping that this will continue and there will be better days ahead. My men on the ground said that at cremation grounds like Giddenahalli and other places, at one time we were witnessing around 70-plus cremations per day. Now they see about 40 per day. But there could be two possibilities. Firstly, with the increase in crematoria, people may not be crowding at a few and thus we are seeing smaller numbers. Secondly, the number of covid deaths could have also reduced marginally. In March first week, when we were yet to wake up to the second wave, we were seeing a spurt in covid deaths which reflected in the health bulletin a few weeks later.”