India is struggling to handle the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic which, in a speech on national television today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “hit us like a hurricane.” There are an estimated 250,000 new cases a day, although yesterday there were 270,000. If infections continue at that rate, this figure could increase to 500,000 per day within a month, according to University of Michigan biostatistician Brahamar Mukherjee, the Washington Post reported. Six states and Delhi account for about two-thirds of new cases.
In New Delhi the situation is dire—the health delivery system is on the verge of collapse, including an acute shortage of oxygen, which is now being trucked in from other states. There are very few—often zero—available beds, especially ICU or critical care beds. Ambulances often go from hospital to hospital seeking bed space. As one infectious disease specialist told NDTV, “I have never seen anything like this.… I am heart-broken.” Last night, the government imposed a week-long lockdown in Delhi and also announced that as of May 1, it will begin vaccinating everyone over the age of 18.
In his TV address, Modi said that the country “is waging a big war right now,” and that he is doing everything possible to remedy the oxygen shortage, including building new oxygen plants in several states, according to IndiaTV. “We are trying to ensure availability to all who need it.” He also asked state governments to urge their workers to stay where they are, not to return to their home states. “The government will look after them and will also start vaccination for them,” he said. Above all, Modi emphasized, a nationwide lockdown should be avoided; states should instead focus on creating “micro containment zones.”
The issue of vaccine availability is key here. India’s prestigious Serum Institute has a large capability of producing vaccines. The Economic Times recently reported that the government is granting it $400 million to help it to ramp up production of the AstraZeneca vaccine to 100 million doses a month by the end of May. However, production has been hampered by a U.S. export ban on certain raw materials needed to produce the vaccine. Given the variant-fueled case surge, the Institute has appealed directly to President Joe Biden for relief. In a tweet to Biden on April 16, Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla wrote “Respected @POTUS, if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the United States, I humbly request you to lift the embargo on raw materials exports out of the U.S., so that vaccine production can ramp up. Your administration has the details.”
