“A horrific surge in coronavirus cases in India continued on Saturday,” with daily cases soaring, which one commentator described as “not a curve or a wave. It’s a rocket. A straight vertical line.” (Read story here; see graph, click to enlarge.)
Overwhelmed hospitals are running out of oxygen, making patients share beds, and denying others admission. Crematoriums can’t keep up with the flood of bodies.
A virulent “double mutant” variant is partly responsible, but the country also is grappling with vaccine shortages. While it has the needed vaccine manufacturing capacity, it lacks crucial raw materials, in part because of U.S. trade policies that are “under review.”
Meanwhile, India’s government is in denial, and refuses to reimpose restrictions on public gatherings, choosing instead to censor criticism of its policies — or, rather, lack of a policy. It citizens are sinking into “denial, fatigue, and fatalistic surrender.”
The right policies can make all the difference. Vietnam is a model for how things should be done. That country has experienced only 35 deaths from Covid-19, total, and its economy grew last year while other countries were locked down. See how they did it here.
Related: Italy bans travel from India (read story here); the U.S. is shipping PPE, ventilators, medical supplies, testing kits, and oxygen generators to India (read story here).
Photo: Cremating Covid-19 victims in Delhi, India
