With the ambulance windows down and the siren ringing, Mohsin Khan, 41, told his assistant why he was driving ambulances.
“I lost my mom because no ambulance arrived in time to take care of her,” she said. “The helplessness I felt, I don’t wish it on my worst enemy. “
In service with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic in India, Khan has noticed and done everything from transporting patients to Delhi hospitals to witnessing the newest rites, but this specific cremation box gave him a sense of general helplessness, as it led her to move the body of a 3-year-old COVID-19 victim , the youngest I had ever used.
“It reminds me of my daughter, she’s a child,” she says in tears.
“Sometimes I finish finishing my full day at cremation sites and cemeteries. There are too many bodies,” he said as he waited to deliver the stretcher back to the crematorium.
Since April 17, when Khan recovered his first COVID-19 patient, he has noticed that the number of cases and deaths has increased.
“My ambulance is the only one in the fleet so far, ” he said. “But with an increase in the number of instances and deaths, we now have 17 ambulances. “
Some days, death is what you see.
“There are so many bodies and so many patients,” he said. Some days we don’t even have time to eat. There were times when I had to take six patients at once. “
India surpassed Brazil this month as the country with the highest number of infections recorded in the world, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the country has a total of 5. 6 million cases, which is not far from the United States, which has 6. 8 million cases.
The country registers between 70,000 and 90,000 new instances according to the day. The virus has killed more than 80,000 people and infection rates are emerging across the country with no symptoms to stop.
“The number of cases that coincide with the day is worrying. And everyone from governments, unions, state governments, medical professionals, everyone is concerned,” Dr. Arvind Kumar, a specialist, told ABC News. at Gangaram Hospital in New Delhi. ” And do we have discussions, dialogues, what to do to involve this issue?”
Experts are also involved in the infection rate in India being higher than previously reported.
In recent months, India’s government has carried out more checks (up to 1 million checks are carried out every day, according to the government), but check rates per capita remain low.
“Compared to other countries that have a comparable number of cases, the Indian check of one million inhabitants is 47,000. Brazil is once and a half higher, and Russia and the United States are six times more numerous,” Dr. Rajib Dasgupta, professor of community medicine at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. “And that is a much more delicate indicator to say that so many checks have been carried out. So, in this area, there are still a lot of paintings to be done. “
Tests in India also include immediate antigenic testing, which affects a higher proportion of false negatives, Dasgupta told ABC News.
“Antigenic testing has been around for several months and was intended for special conditions such as containment spaces and others with the highest probability of disease,” Dasgupta said. “But now it’s going down further. On the plus side, it has a higher number. “of tests, but on the downside, you get less than you would get with such a high number of tests. “
In March, India instituted a strict blockade to stem the crisis and give India’s overburdened health care formula the chance to deal with the pandemic, but the blockade plan did take into account the millions of internal migrants in cities. workers who, overnight, found the the most without paintings or shelter.
They still had no option to undertake arduous journeys, on foot, to return to their villages thousands of miles away, and that contributed to the spread of the virus.
“We have had the unfortunate incidents of millions of employees who crossed the country, who unfortunately transported this virus from cities to our rural areas, which in the past were intact,” Kumar said.
The blockade hit the economy hard. India’s GDP fell by 23. 9% between April and June, and 121 million people lost their jobs between April and August.
In May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government began to ease the blockade as cases increased.
The government has made the decision that it cannot cause an additional slowdown in the economy and has since continued to reduce restrictions despite the increase in cases.
Workplaces and businesses have reopened, the structure has restarted, markets are lively and restaurants have opened, and the subway has also resumed in other cities.
The iconic Taj Mahal, India’s largest tourist attraction, welcomed tourists on September 21, albeit in a much smaller number, after closing its doors for six unprecedented months.
But as examples accumulate every day, India’s health care formula has been tested.
“Yes, it is a fact that in peak primary cities we achieve a saturation point where maximum hospitals suffocate at full capacity. There’s a shortage of fans,” Kumar said.
Valuable oxygen is scarce.
Dasgupta believes that, so far, fitness has been largely a success in tackling the pandemic.
“If the instances stabilize at this stage, we can assume that the facilities can cope. If they keep rising, it’s going to be hard,” he said. The other challenge is that other facilities are affected, for example, regimen facilities such as prenatal care, such as vaccination, postnatal care, treatment of others with chronic diseases; all have been affected to varying degrees, and this is not a component of history. . “
They are the ones on the front lines of war who are at the greatest risk. The Indian Medical Association said at least 382 doctors lost their lives fighting COVID-19 after the Indian government said it had no knowledge of the deaths of fitness employees.
For Mohsin Khan, the ambulance driver, the danger of infection is ubiquitous, but helps move on.
“There is an ambulance driving force in Chennai that stuck a coronavirus and died. People have told me about this incident and asked me what I would do. I told them I wouldn’t quit this job. If God gives us courage, then we will. “Continue, ” said Khan.
At 1. 6%, India’s official mortality rate remains low. This means that of all other people with a positive COVID-19 test, only about 1. 6% die from the disease. By comparison, the US has a mortality rate of 2. 9% and in the UK the mortality rate is 10. 4%.
But in India, the mortality rate is probably a major understatement. It has been reported that other people with comorities, who die after contracting a coronavirus, would possibly not be considered deaths due to COVID-19.
“This is absolutely contrary to the rules of the World Health Organization,” Dasgupta said. “While a state has full authority to review deaths and, indeed, conduct rigorous mortality research, it should be guided by WHO’s position on this issue. “
In parliament, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan accused “irresponsible social behavior” of contributing to the outbreak. He suggested that all Indians adhere to hygiene, wear masks, and practice social est estgnation.
“I think other people are now restless and probably don’t meet the criteria of social distance, mask and hygiene that at the beginning of lockdown,” Kumar said. “I have continually asked other people that no matter how many months have passed, we have still no selection to continue to meet the criteria of social estating. “
It’s not just COVID-19 fatigue. In a country like India, which is densely populated, with crowded public spaces and narrow housing solutions, at most, other people do not have the luxury of space.
In the narrow, congested streets of Old Delhi, the walled city of the Mughal era, social distance is almost impossible.
Piyush Dixit, who runs a place to eat in one of the alleys, has noticed that his benches have filled up since they opened the places to eat.
“Before, other people were afraid, they didn’t faint, they tried to stay at a distance. But it’s human nature, how long can you confine someone in a space?Dixit told ABC News. ” Cases will only increase, but other people may no longer wait internally. Whether it’s painting or just going out, they’re going out. “
Dasgupta believes that other people should be informed to live with the virus for the foreseeable future.
“There is no end in sight as we speak because there are a million active instances at this level and the existing replay rate is 1, which is not bad but it means that one million instances will be transmitted to some other million,” Dasgupta said. “The maximum positive situation is stagnating, but it may not end soon. “
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