People are almost reconciling to life in Lockdown fashion, most often delaying visits to hospital as much as they can because of overcrowding and healthcare system coming under stress.
It is also being reported in various states that tests are also being delayed. Vaccination exercise has come under stress. In short, the ongoing second wave crisis has brought in health disaster with millions dying, there is political and administrative chaos and there is also impending economic disaster on hand.
There are signs that India's outbreak has spread to Indonesia. The Covid is spreading in Nepal also as the tiny Himalayan nation recorded a 137 per cent increase in cases to 31,088 last week. There are worrying signs in Sri Lanka as well.
There is already a formal warning about the third wave now. India accounted for 46 per cent of the new Covid-19 cases recorded worldwide last week and one in four of deaths, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday (May 5). reports from Geneva said. India reported nearly 2.6 million new cases, a 20 per cent increase on the previous week, and 23,231 deaths.
Worldwide, 5.7 million new cases were reported last week and more than 93,000 deaths, WHO said in its weekly epidemiological report. India reported nearly 2.6 million new cases, a 20 per cent increase on the previous week, and 23,231 deaths.
The country's limitation in ability to track new mutations emerging from the outbreak is a growing concern now. A team at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore used a mathematical model to predict that about 404,000 deaths will occur by June 11 if current trends continue. A model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington forecast 1,018,879 deaths by the end of July, reports said.
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| Feeling the Heat ! |
However, many say the country of 1.4 billion with sizable Muslims, Christians and Sikhs besides the Hindus are yet to unite and show the much needed unity of purpose with political bickering and communal tensions still persisting.
While politicians and political parties are busy scoring points against each other, the post-poll violence claiming at least 15 lives in West Bengal shows somewhere down the line the gravity of the crisis has still not dawned.
The farmers in north Indian states are still protesting in huge gathering in public place and on May 5 announced that from May 10 - despite Lockdown, a large number of protesting farmers would be marching into India's capital from May 10.
"We are not spreading the virus. It spread because of government's failure to provide oxygen and minimum services in hospitals. Why blame us?," says a farmers' leader.
BJP leader in Madhya Pradesh, Pankaj Chaturvedi says, "The country should unite at the earliest. The unity of purpose is one of the defining issues today. We need it at all levels like never before.We cannot wait until the crisis forces us to do something very drastic".
The Reserve Bank of India on May 5 announced a number of economic measures to tackle the second wave of Covid pandemic. RBI Governor Shaktikant Das announced a term Liquidity facility of Rs 50,000 crore (dollars ??) to ease access to emergency health services.
The central bank's intervention came at a time when most parts of India are either in Lockdown or maintaining restrictions of public movements like curfew or nigh lockdown. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is immensely under pressure to announce national lockdown.
It is not for the first time, such steps have been announced. But how much things have helped o ground?
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