COVID-19 is spinning through three of the world’s most populous countries, rather than retreating. The force with which it is gathering in each of these countries makes clear the mounting danger it poses to the world.
India: In response to an acute shortage of hospital beds, India’s federal government led by Narendra Modi announced June 14 that it will provide New Delhi’s authorities with 500 railway cars that will be equipped to care for coronavirus patients. The cars will increase Delhi’s capacity by 8,000 beds, home minister Amit Shah said on twitter.
Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, warned that by current estimates of the rate of growth, there would be more than half a million cases in the capital city alone by the end of July, requiring more than 80,000 hospital beds.
For India overall, during the past nineteen days, the country has seen the number of COVID-19 infection cases jump from 144,950 to 320,000, with an increase of 12,000 new cases on June 14 alone. 9,195 Indians have died from COVID-19.The crisis is made more acute by the fact that millions of migrants workers returning from big cities and industrial hubs bring the virus home with them to rural areas.
Dr. Naman Shah, an epidemiologist and physician advising a federal government coronavirus task force, speaking about the inadequate number of doctors and health facilities in rural areas said, “High levels of co-morbidity, high levels of under-nutrition and a weak health infrastructure, that’s just the recipe for high mortality.”
Bangladesh: Bangladesh announced 3,141 new cases and 32 more deaths from the coronavirus in a single day, June 14, raising its total caseload to 87,520, including 1,171 fatalities.
Nasima Sultana, a director general of the Health Directorate, reported that a junior minister from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Cabinet and as well as a former health minister and close aide to Hasina both died of the virus on Saturday in Dhaka, the capital.
Reuters reports, “Bangladesh’s main state-run hospitals are overwhelmed, with many critical COVID-19 patients being deprived of intensive care beds and ventilators.”
Egypt: Egypt’s Health Ministry announced that on June 14, sixty-two more Egyptians died from the coronavirus, and that on the same day, there were 1,677 new confirmed cases of coronavirus—the highest 24 hours infection total since the virus was first detected in the country in mid-February, bringing the total number of infections in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, to 43,000. [ref]
