Covid-19 infections and deaths are mounting with alarming speed in India with no end in sight to the crisis and a top expert warning that the coming weeks in the country of nearly 1.4 billion people will be “horrible”.
India’s official count of coronavirus cases surpassed 20 million on Tuesday, nearly doubling in the past three months, while deaths officially have passed 220,000. Staggering as those numbers are, the true figures are believed to be far higher, the undercount an apparent reflection of the troubles in the health care system.
The country has witnessed scenes of people dying outside overwhelmed hospitals and funeral pyres lighting up the night sky.
Infections have surged in India since February in a disastrous turn blamed on more contagious variants of the virus as well as government decisions to allow massive crowds to gather for Hindu religious festivals and political rallies before state elections.
Relatives mourn during the cremation of their loved one who died due to Covid-19 at a cremation ground in Allahabad, India on May 4. — AFP
People watch the cremation of people who died due to the coronavirus at Sahudangi Crematorium, some 15km from Siliguri, India on May 4. — AFP
Relatives bury the body of a Covid-19 victim at a graveyard in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, May 4. — AP
A family member comforts a patient breathing with the help of oxygen being provided by a Gurdwara, a place of worship for Sikhs, under a tent installed along the roadside amid Covid-19 pandemic in Ghaziabad on May 4. — AFP
Relatives perform the last rites before the cremation of their loved one who died due to Covid-19 at a cremation ground in Allahabad, India on May 4. — AFP
People wait to refill their medical oxygen cylinders for Covid-19 patients under home quarantine at a private refill centre in New Delhi on May 4. — AFP
A woman who was turned back following shortage of Covid-19 vaccine argues with a doctor at a vaccination centre in Mumbai, India, Monday, May 3. — AP
Relatives sit next to the body of a man who died due to Covid-19, as they wait for a grave to be prepared for his burial at a graveyard on the outskirts of Srinagar, May 4. — Reuters
Funeral pyres of people who died due to Covid-19 are seen at a cremation ground in New Delhi on May 4. — AFP
A patient collapses as she is rushed on a cycle rickshaw outside a Gurudwara which provides free oxygen to patients under a tent installed along a roadside amid coronavirus pandemic in Ghaziabad, India on May 4. — AFP
Auto rickshaw drivers and street vendors collect money from people for those affected by the lockdown restrictions imposed by the state government to curb the spread of Covid-19 in Amritsar on May 4. — AFP
A relative mourns next to the body of his loved one who died due to Covid-19 at a cremation ground in Allahabad on May 4. — AFP
People wearing protective face masks wait to receive a dose of COVISHIELD, a coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, at a vaccination centre in New Delhi, India, May 4. — Reuters
In this April 30 file photo, a relative of a person who died of Covid-19 mourns at a crematorium in Indian-occupied Jammu. — AP
Header image: Relatives react to heat emitting from the multiple funeral pyres of Covid-19 victims at a crematorium in the outskirts of New Delhi, India in this April 29, 2021, photo. — AP
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