Daily Times

The pandemic is completely out of control in India and the situation there is truly “beyond heartbreaking” as very rightly put by World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. First the hospitals began overflowing, then they had to put two patients to a bed even in the capital of Delhi, then they had to accommodate patients out on the streets and then families simply took to social media to beg for help; especially for oxygen containers that are in such short supply. The US and UK have helped, as have a number of other countries, by rushing supplies to India but there’s only so much anybody can do when you are talking about almost one-and-a-half billion people populating a country that is chronically low on essential supplies even in the best of times. Pakistan has also expressed concern and offered to lend a hand. And even though Delhi is keeping mum about it for now, its best if it takes the offer in good spirit and lets it add to the goodwill that the two countries are trying to generate.

Sad as the situation is, it must still be pointed out that things would not have been quite as bad if only the Indian government had taken some right steps at the right times. For even when the first wave first reached the continent the Indian government overreacted and announced a snap lockdown all over the country in a manner that millions of labourers and daily wagers were left stranded with no transport. As a result they had to walk, sometimes thousands of miles, to get back to their native cities and villages; spreading the virus all the way as they went.

This time, too, even as the cases were rising to record numbers the Modi government was sitting comfortably and refusing to take some of the preventive measures that practically all other countries have taken. Only now, for example, have they locked down cities that have become major hotspots and put a stop on all travel. If only they had done some of these things a little sooner the number of new cases and deaths could have been lower. As things stand, India has become the world’s fourth worst Covid-affected country, after the US, Brazil and Mexico. But it has fewer resources and a lot more burden on them at the moment, which makes India’s crisis far graver. Hopefully enough help will reach India in time to keep things from getting yet worse. *