While the corona situation is easing in this country, the situation in India is catastrophic. The Indian Ministry of Health counts more than 250,000 corona deaths.
New Delhi – Due to a new daily maximum number of deaths within 24 hours, the threshold of a total of 250,000 officially registered corona deaths was exceeded in India on Wednesday (May 12, 2021). However, experts suspect that the number of actual deaths related to the coronavirus is still significantly higher.
As the Indian Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday, a total of 4205 new deaths were registered within 24 hours. The official total number of reported Covid-19 deaths rose to 254,197. With almost 350,000 new infections, the total number of registered corona infections rose to 23.3 million. For India this means the second highest number behind the USA.
Corona in India: Virus is spreading in rural regions – official figures are deceptive
The coronavirus seems to be spreading unchecked, especially in rural areas, where a good two thirds of India’s 1.3 billion population live. There are at least “three or four times more deaths” than officially announced, said independent health researcher Anant Bhan of the AFP news agency.
As an example of the deviating and possibly incorrect figures, experts cite the state of Gujarat, among others: In Rajkot in the west of the home state of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there were only 154 between April 1 and 23, according to the health ministry of the capital New Delhi Covid-19 deaths. The local authorities, on the other hand, assume 723 corona deaths.
Corona in India: health system and crematoria overloaded – dozen dead in the Ganges
India’s already poorly equipped health system is completely overloaded due to the steadily increasing number of corona cases. In many hospitals in the country, beds, medical oxygen and medication are scarce, despite the help from Germany and other nations. The crematoria have also been overloaded for several weeks. How precarious the situation is is shown by the fact that corpses are now being cremated even in parking lots. Sometimes corpses are even thrown into rivers. Probably also because many of the bereaved in poor sections of the population cannot afford the wood for a burial.
Dozens of bodies of alleged Covid 19 deaths were washed up on the banks of the Ganges. As a result, a safety net was now stretched through the river in northern India. This was announced by the Minister for Water Resources in Bihar State, Sanjay Kumar, on Twitter on Wednesday. The net was placed in the Ganges on the border between Bihar and the state of Uttar Pradesh. The minister also announced further controls on the river.
The discovery of a total of more than 70 bodies on the banks of the Ganges in Bihar had also heightened fears that the corona virus could spread unnoticed in rural India. Kumar said the poor state’s government was saddened by the tragedy of the deceased and the damage to the river, which Hinduism considered sacred. Autopsy of the bodies found is said to have shown that the deceased had been dead for several days.
Corona variant B.1.617 discovered in India “worrying” according to WHO
Coronavirus variant B.1.617 discovered in India has been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “worrying” because the variant is possibly both more contagious and less sensitive to antibodies. The German health expert Karl Lauterbach (SPD) also warns of the Corona mutant from India. According to current information from the UN organization, it has now spread to more than 40 countries.
The mutant, which first appeared in India in October, has been definitively detected in “44 countries in all six WHO regions,” said the UN. There were also reports on evidence from five other countries. Outside of India, most cases with the Indian virus variant B.1.617 were found in the UK. (yw with afp)
Rubriklistenbild: © Imago / Prabhat Kumar Verma
