India hospitals running out of oxygen and beds

 

An alarming spike in COVID-19 cases has created a crisis across India, particularly in the capital, New Delhi, recording more than 25,000 cases — about one in three of those tested — in the past 24 hours, according to official data. The situation in New Delhi, which has a population of more than 20 million people, forced Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to write to the federal government seeking more hospital beds. Several health care facilities have said they can no longer accommodate patients, leading to a rise in fatalities due to lack of space, oxygen cylinders and drugs. “The situation in Delhi is very grim,” Kejriwal wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He asked the PM to “earmark 7,000 beds out of 10,000 in the federal government-run hospitals in Delhi” for COVID-19 patients to “tide over the crisis.” “There is an acute dearth of oxygen in Delhi, and it should be supplied immediately,” Kejriwal added. On Sunday, India registered a record single-day rise of 261,500 coronavirus infections taking the nationwide case total to almost 1.48 million.

More than 1,500 people died from the coronavirus disease on Sunday alone, another record for the nation of 1.39 billion, bringing the national toll to 177,168 deaths. Several residents in New Delhi said that most private and government hospitals had run out of beds with many patients desperate to get admitted to hospital. “Since yesterday evening I have been trying to admit my sister in a hospital but seven or eight hospitals I reached refused admission,” Tabish Jamal, a Delhi resident, told Arab News on Sunday. “My sister’s oxygen level is dipping, and she needs immediate medical intervention, but it’s a grim scenario. We are so helpless,” she said, adding that “a small nursing home with basic facilities” had admitted her sister, but “we are getting desperate.”

Lucknow, the capital of the eastern state of Uttar Pradesh, is also facing a bleak scenario with media reports saying that people were “waiting in hordes to be admitted to hospitals,” with at least 50 seen queueing outside the King George’s Medical University, the city’s main facility. “It’s a grim scenario in the city and around Lucknow,” Kulsum Mustafa, a senior journalist in Lucknow, said on Sunday. She accused the government of “hiding the exact figures and not showing the true picture.” “The fact is that there is not only an acute shortage of beds and oxygen, but the testing facilities are minimal too,” Mustafa said. India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh reported close to 27,550 cases on Sunday making it the second-worst affected area, after the western state of Maharashtra, which had registered more than 67,000 patients in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, in the western state of Gujarat, which is PM Modi’s home state, officials reported scenes of “chaos at most hospitals” in the capital city of Ahmedabad. “Ahmedabad city, like other places in India, is facing a shortage of oxygen, hospital beds and important medicines such as Remdesivir,” Dr. Mona Desai, chief of Ahmedabad Medical Association, said on Sunday. “With the new variant of coronavirus, the oxygen level starts to dip very soon, and the state is not prepared to supply oxygen to all. The timely intervention of oxygen is important; otherwise, vital organs fail,” she added. On Sunday, Gujarat registered nearly 10,000 cases, which Desai said is “not the real figure.” “The death toll is high this time, but the government data is not showing that. I don’t know why they hide the data.” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that the “oxygen production is being doubled.”

Courtesy : Arab News

 

Covid variant spread rapidly in Britain even during lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus reached the country in late January 2020. As of 10 January 2021, there have been 3,072,349 confirmed cases and 81,431 deaths, the world’s eighth-highest death rate per hundred thousand population and the highest number overall in Europe. There were 85,792 deaths where the death certificate mentioned COVID-19 by 25 December (see Statistics). More than 90% of those dying had underlying illnesses or were over 60 years old. There has been some disparity between the outbreak’s severity in each of the four nations. Health in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter, with England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each having their own systems of publicly funded healthcare, separate governments and parliaments, together with smaller private sector and voluntary provision.

On 22 February, in Scotland, COVID-19 became a “notifiable disease”, and a surveillance network involving 41 GP locations was established to submit samples of suspected patients, even if they had no travel history. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for England launched a public health information campaign to help slow the virus’s spread, and began posting daily updates in early February. The HSC began testing for COVID-19 during February 2020, as of 19 February there were 35 completed tests all of which returned negative results. Also in February, the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, introduced the Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 for England, and hospitals set up drive-through screening. The Chief Medical Officer for England, Chris Whitty, outlined a four-pronged strategy, relevant to England, to tackle the outbreak: contain, delay, research and mitigate. In Wales, the Chief Medical Officer, Frank Atherton, said that the Government would be taking “all appropriate measures” to reduce the risk of transmission.

In March, the UK governments imposed a stay-at-home order, dubbed “Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives”, banning all non-essential travel and closing most gathering places. Those with symptoms, and their households, were told to self-isolate, while those with certain illnesses were told to shield themselves. People were told to keep apart in public. Police were empowered to enforce the measures, and the Coronavirus Act 2020 gave all four governments emergency powers not used since the Second World War. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak forecast that lengthy restrictions would severely damage the UK economy, worsen mental health and suicide rates, and cause additional deaths due to isolation, delays and falling living standards. 

All four national health services worked to raise hospital capacity and set up temporary critical care hospitals, including the NHS Nightingale Hospitals. By mid-April it was reported that social distancing had “flattened the curve” of the epidemic. In late April, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the UK had passed the peak of its outbreak. Daily cases and deaths slowly declined in May and June, and continued at a relatively low level in July and August. The total number of excess deaths in the UK from the start of the outbreak to mid-June was just over 65,000.

Cases rose significantly from late August onwards (by a factor of 3.2 from 15 August to 15 September). From October onwards, varying levels of lockdown were imposed in England, including in many areas a complete ban on households mixing at Christmas, in tandem with the discovery of a variant of concern which was blamed by Hancock for the rise in cases in the South East and precipitated further suspensions of international travel from the UK. A similar system was introduced in Scotland. Circuit breaker lockdowns took place in Wales and Northern Ireland. In December, the UK became the first country to authorise and begin use of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (tozinameran).

 

United States : Protest schools reopening amid covid-19 pandemic

With some public schools reopened and coronavirus cases already being reported, protesters in at least three dozen school districts across the country took to the streets Monday to demand that science and health concerns rule decisions about when and how to resume in-person learning. Trump’s demands that schools reopen while coronavirus infection rates are increasing in most states have politicized reopening decisions being made at the local and state levels. Many district leaders, including in Republican-led states, have said they are starting the school year virtually because it is too dangerous to reopen school buildings and risk the spread of the coronavirus. Still, some districts have already begun the 2020-2021 academic year by reopening school buildings, and already coronavirus cases have been reported in some of them.

In Georgia’s Gwinnett County, some 260 employees tested positive or had possibly been exposed to the coronavirus a day after teachers returned to work last week and were told to stay home. Alcoa City Schools in Tennessee recently opened, but a few days later a student tested positive for the virus. At Corinth High School in Mississippi, in-person classes started last week and within days five students tested positive for the coronavirus and others went into quarantine as a result of contact tracing, the school district said. In New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities across the country on Monday, teachers, students, parents and others protested in car caravans and street marches, demanding that health concerns and scientific findings on the spread of the novel coronavirus dictate when and how schools reopen. 

In what unions and other organizers called a national day of resistance against what they called “unsafe” school openings, protesters carried fake coffins and gravestones as well as signs demanding schools stay closed until it is safe to reopen, including New York City and Chicago, where school buildings are set to reopen soon. In Milwaukee, the Teachers’ Education Association tweeted pictures of protesters making fake gravestones that said, for example, “RIP GRANDMA CAUGHT COVID HELPING GRANDKIDS WITH HOMEWORK.” In Baltimore, teachers and students and others protested outside a Comcast building to demand the company provide improved Internet service for students. The protest occurred on the same day Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan moved to invalidate a decision made by the health department in Montgomery County that said private schools should start the academic year online, just like public schools are.

Courtesy : The Washington Post

Coronavirus : India’s Covid-19 cases surge past one million …

India became the third country in the world to record more than one million cases of the coronavirus, behind only the United States and Brazil, as infections spread further into the countryside and smaller towns. India hit a milestone that it had made great sacrifices to avoid: recording more than one million coronavirus infections. The virus has been gnawing its way across this country of 1.3 billion people and gaining speed, fueled by high population density, an already beleaguered health care system and a calculation by the central government to lift a nationwide lockdown in hopes of getting the economy up and running, come what may. But as India’s number of confirmed new infections keeps hitting record highs, many states and cities have been locking down again. In some areas, long lines of bodies snake out of cremation grounds. India is now racking up about 30,000 new reported infections each day — more than any other country except the United States and Brazil, and it is catching up to Brazil.

India now has the third-highest total cases — 1,003,832 cases and 25,602 deaths —  after the United States and Brazil. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology estimate that by the end of next year, India will be the worst-hit country in the world. “We have paid a price for laxity,” said K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, a nonprofit organization of public health experts and academics. About 25,000 deaths have been officially attributed to Covid-19, but testing remains sparse, so the real figure could be significantly higher. Schools and universities have been shut since March with no clear plans to reopen, leaving nearly 278 million students without much to do. 

Courtesy : New York Times

Coronavirus Cases in India : ‘The epidemic is growing very rapidly’

The COVID-19 pandemic in India is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first case of COVID-19 in India, which originated from China, was reported on 30 January 2020. As of 13 July 2020, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has confirmed a total of 878,254 cases, 553,470 recoveries (including 1 migration) and 23,174 deaths in the country. India currently has the largest number of confirmed cases in Asia, and has the third highest number of confirmed cases in the world after the United States and Brazil with the number of total confirmed cases breaching the 100,000 mark on 19 May and 200,000 on 3 June. India’s case fatality rate is relatively lower at 2.80%, against the global 4.7%, as of 6 July. Six cities account for around half of all reported cases in the country – Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Pune and Kolkata.  As of 24 May 2020, Lakshadweep is the only region which has not reported a case. On 10 June, India’s recoveries exceeded active cases for the first time reducing 49% of total infections followed by recovery rate crossing 60% till early July. Although, active have continued to increase persistently.

On 22 March, India observed a 14-hour voluntary public curfew at the instance of the prime minister Narendra Modi. It was followed by mandatory lockdowns in COVID-19 hotspots and all major cities. Further, on 24 March, the Prime Minister ordered a nationwide lockdown for 21 days, affecting the entire 1.3 billion population of India. On 14 April, the PM extended the nationwide lockdown till 3 May which was followed by two-week extensions starting 3 and 17 May with substantial relaxations. From 1 June, the Government has started “unlocking” the country (barring “containment zones”) in three unlock phases.

The United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have praised India’s response to the pandemic as ‘Comprehensive and robust,’ terming the Lockdown restrictions as aggressive but vital for containing the spread and building necessary healthcare infrastructure. The Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) noted the government’s swift and stringent actions, emergency policy making, emergency investment in healthcare, fiscal stimulus, investment in vaccine and drug R&D. It gave India a score of 100 for its strict response. Michael Ryan, chief executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme noted that India had tremendous capacity to deal with the outbreak owing to its vast experience in eradicating smallpox and polio. In June, India was ranked 56th of 200 countries in COVID 19 safety assessment report by Deep Knowledge Group. Though, other commentators have also raised concerns about the economic fallout arising as a result of the pandemic and preventive restrictions. The lockdown was justified by the government and other agencies for being preemptive to prevent India from entering a higher stage which could make handling very difficult and cause even more losses thereafter.

How victims of Coronavirus die and disappear alone

Morgues and cemeteries are running out of room in some regions, and the bodies of some coronavirus victims either remain unidentified or unclaimed by family members. Traditional funerals have all but been eliminated for fear of spreading the illness, forcing mourners to grieve at a distance.

United States reaches grim milestone of 100,000 covid-19 deaths

The United States has recorded more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, moving past a grim milestone even as many states relax mitigation measures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. The US has recorded more deaths from the disease than any other country in the pandemic, and almost three times as many as the second-ranking country, Britain, which has recorded more than 37,000 Covid-19 deaths. The latest count of fatalities is 100,047 according to Johns Hopkins University data. Donald Trump did not immediately react to the news. On Twitter, he posted a clip of Fox New’s Lou Dobbs calling Trump “arguably the greatest president in our history”. Earlier this month, Trump said 100,000 deaths would be “horrible”, but he claimed that actions by his administration had prevented a much higher toll.

 The virus has killed more Americans than the Vietnam and Korean wars combined, and the death toll is approaching that of the first world war, when more than 116,000 Americans died in combat. The number of fatalities in the United States is still climbing, , and federal officials warn that the likely actual toll from the coronavirus is higher than the official figure. A tracking project by the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) of “excess deaths” in each state beyond seasonal averages suggests the official count of Covid-19 deaths could leave out thousands of cases. “These deaths could represent misclassified Covid-19 deaths, or potentially could be indirectly related to Covid-19 (eg, deaths from other causes occurring in the context of healthcare shortages or overburdened healthcare systems),” the CDC said.

US Deaths : Covid-19 – US Death Toll Crosses 50,000

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus reached 50,000 on Friday, having doubled in 10 days, according to a Reuters tally. More than 875,000 Americans have contracted COVID-19, and on average about 2,000 have died every day this month. The coronavirus’s U.S. death toll surged past 50,000, marking another grim milestone in the pandemic that has upended life around the globe. Three months after the nation’s first confirmed case, the highly contagious virus has killed at an alarming rate: Just 10 days ago, the number of recorded deaths stood at 25,000. Experts have warned that the number of reported fatalities probably underestimates the true toll of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Amid a national debate over how to count the dead, methods have varied widely from state to state. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially included only those who tested positive for the virus, even with strict limitations on testing.

The Washington Post has been analyzing data from state health agencies to track every known death in the country. Of the 50,024 fatalities confirmed as of Friday, 21,283 — or about 42 percent — occurred in New York. But while the state has started to see a decrease in its confirmed daily death counts, other parts of the country are beginning to see a surge. Even as governors in multiple states eased stay-at-home orders and took other steps to restart their stymied economies, the disease’s rapid spread in urban and rural areas had led to more than 28,000 deaths outside the hot spot of New York. The second-highest death toll was being carried by New Jersey, followed by Michigan, Massachusetts and Illinois. The novel coronavirus emerged in late December as a scattering of mysterious illnesses in Wuhan, China, with symptoms ranging from coughing and fever to cases of pneumonia, kidney failure and fluid buildup in the lungs. It soon traveled the globe, triggering school closures, lockdowns and unprecedented economic disruption. Worldwide as of Friday, more than 2.7 million people had been sickened with the virus and more than 195,000 had died, according to tracking by Johns Hopkins University.

Americans Protest : Protesting in the Age of Coronavirus

Protesters across the U.S. rally against stay-at-home orders aimed at reducing the spread of coronavirus. In the United States in April 2020, protests were organized by pro-Trump Republican and far-right groups and individuals in several locations across the United States. The protests opposed the measures state governments were taking to combat the coronavirus pandemic, such as business closures and stay-at-home orders, and demanded that their state be “re-opened”. The protests made international news. One of the first protests was in Michigan on April 15, 2020. It was organized via a Facebook group called Operation Gridlock, which was created by the Michigan Freedom Fund and the Michigan Conservative Coalition. A spokesman for the Michigan Conservative Coalition encouraged groups in other states to copy the Operation Gridlock wording and templates. Protesters in numerous other states said they were inspired by Michigan, and they used Michigan’s material on their own websites, Facebook groups, and Reddit pages to promote their protests. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer called attention to the fact that the Michigan Freedom Fund is funded in part by the DeVos family, but a spokesman said the family had nothing to do with the protests.

The Trump campaign declined to answer whether it was directly involved with organizing the protest in Michigan, but key protest organizers who did identify themselves were Meshawn Maddock, the wife of Republican state representative Matt Maddock and a member of the national advisory board for Women for Trump, and Marian Sheridan, who serves as a vice chair on the Michigan Republican Party. The protest in Washington State was organized by a county Republican Party, and speakers included three Republican state legislators. FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy group associated with the Tea Party Movement, published a “#ReOpenAmerica Planning Guide”. Protesters opposed the shelter-in-place orders in their states for various reasons. Many said they want businesses reopened so they can go back to work. Many others displayed pro-Trump banners, signs, and MAGA hats. Still others insisted the lockdowns were a violation of their constitutional rights. One militia leader told a reporter, “Re-open my state or we will re-open it ourselves.” The anger driving the protests was called “both real and manufactured,” with conservative groups engaging in Astroturfing via centralized organization backed by anonymous donors.

The reopen protests have generally been small, with protestor numbers ranging from a few dozen to the low hundreds; the first protest in Michigan drew several thousand. Protesters included mainstream Republicans, but also far-right groups including Proud Boys and armed militia movement supporters. A large number of “anti-vax” advocates have attended, and some have been the organizers of local protests. Ben, Chris and Aaron Dorr, three guns-rights activist brothers from Northfield, Minnesota, are the organizers of protests in several midwestern states. 

China’s Wuhan ends its coronavirus lockdown

Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province in China. With a population of over 11 million, it is the largest city in Hubei, the most populous city in Central China, the seventh-most populous Chinese city, and one of the nine National Central Cities of China. Wuhan lies in the eastern Jianghan Plain, on the confluence of the Yangtze River and its largest tributary, the Han River. It is a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads and expressways passing through the city and connecting to other major cities. Because of its key role in domestic transport, Wuhan is known as the “Nine Provinces’ Thoroughfare” and sometimes referred to as “the Chicago of China”.

The Chinese city where the coronavirus epidemic first broke out, Wuhan, ended a two-month lockdown on Wednesday, but a northern town started restricting the movement of its residents amid concerns of a second wave of infections in mainland China. China sealed off Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, in late January to stop the spread of the virus. Over 50,000 people in Wuhan caught the virus, and more than 2,500 of them died, about 80% of all deaths in China, according to official figures. Restrictions have eased in recent days as the capital of Hubei province saw just three new confirmed infections in the past 21 days and only two new infections in the past fortnight.

But even as people leave the city, new imported cases in the northern province of Heilongjiang surged to a daily high of 25, fuelled by a continued influx of infected travellers arriving from Russia, which shares a land border with the province. Suifenhe City in Heilongjiang restricted the movement of its citizens on Wednesday in a similar fashion to that of Wuhan. Residents must stay in their residential compounds and one person from a family can leave once every three days to buy necessities and must return on the same day, said state-run CCTV. In Jiaozhou City in the eastern province of Shandong the risk level had risen from low to medium, according to a post on an official website, but it gave no details why.