More than a year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, India is crushed by a new wave of infections that are breaking world records.
The unprecedented explosion of cases has come even after the country has performed relatively well against the pandemic until recently.
Experts point to a “perfect storm” of factors as to why the country is suddenly hit so hard.
The outbreak comes on the heels of the government allowing massive crowds to gather for Hindu religious festivals and political rallies ahead of state elections – compounded by more relaxed attitudes about security measures and emerging news more contagious strains of the virus.
“It’s almost like India is hitting a perfect storm,” SV Subramanian, professor of population health and geography at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, told USA Today.
The country broke its own record for daily coronavirus cases and deaths on Thursday with 412,262 new infections and 3,980 deaths in the past 24 hours. Both figures are believed to be underestimated, however.
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The latest crisis stands in stark contrast to the first wave of the pandemic, when it issued one of the world’s toughest lockdowns on its 1.3 billion people.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government banned all domestic and international travel at the end of March 2020 and closed factories, schools, offices and all stores other than those providing essential services.
The number of cases peaked around September at nearly 100,000 infections, but the infection rate then slowed considerably, declaring all-time lows in January and February.
Modi said the country defeated the virus at the end of January, insisting that his efforts had saved “humanity from a great catastrophe by effectively containing the coronavirus,” Foreign Policy reported.
“The government just didn’t see the second wave coming and started celebrating too soon,” Dr Shahid Jameel, a senior virologist, told the BBC.
After the declaration of victory, people let their guard down when it came to health measures, such as wearing masks and social distancing, experts said.
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This included a number of Modi’s ministers who ignored government mask recommendations while addressing large crowds at rallies during his election campaign.
The government also allowed people to gather for Kumbh Mela in April, a Hindu festival that draws millions to the Ganges in Haridwa.
“There was a total disconnect between what they practiced and what they preached,” Dr Chandrakant Lahariya, a health systems expert in New Delhi, told the BBC.
Stimulated by the emergence of new contagious variants, the second wave descended rapidly across the country, nearly doubling its official number of cases to 20 million in three months.
“Previously, individuals were affected, but now entire families contract Covid,†Lahariya told the British Medical Journal.
The surge in cases has been compounded by shortcomings in the health care system, which does not have enough tests, drugs or hospital beds.
Shortages are also occurring with oxygen supplies, forcing families to scramble to find themselves reservoirs for sick loved ones.
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“When the first wave waned, that’s when they should have braced for a second wave and assumed the worst. [government] should have taken an oxygen inventory and [the drug] remdesivir and then increased production capacity, â€Mahesh Zagade, former health secretary of Maharashtra state, told the BBC.
Vaccinations are also lagging behind in the country, which does not have enough doses and has only given injections to about 2.1 million people per day, or about 0.15% of its population.
“It will be months before we have enough vaccines to accelerate the program. Until then, millions of people will continue to be at risk of contracting Covid,” Lahariya told the BBC.
With pole wires.
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