Covid-19 spread to rural India 8
In India’s major cities, statistics do not fully describe the scale of the epidemic and human losses in the second wave of the epidemic.
`The majority of Covid-19 patients are being treated at home without being tested. Only those with symptoms of severe shortness of breath go to medical facilities, the rest are many people who have the disease but have not been detected,` Samirul
As thousands of Indians rush to leave cities with Covid-19 outbreaks to return to their hometowns before the blockade, rural doctors have a bad feeling.
Many surveys show that migrants have difficulty accessing social benefits.
In some rural areas of West Bengal state, where politicians are holding election campaigns, the epidemic has broken out.
`Very few hospitals in this area have room for patients. Some refuse to accept more patients, no matter how sick they are. At work, I see a number of people having difficulty breathing and other symptoms.`
Official statistics show that monthly cases in Birbhum district increased from 42 in February to 4,762 on April 21.
`The actual number of infections in my area may be 5 to 10 times higher than the reported level,` this doctor said.
Workers in Mumbai wait for the train to return home in April. Photo: New York Times.
Busy with the election, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and the opposition parties did not take advantage of the time when the epidemic subsided in early 2021 to prepare oxygen supplies, medicine, and hospital beds, according to Manas Gumta,
`The current infrastructure is not capable of resisting the destructive force of the second wave of Covid-19. Three months ago, we all received signs that the epidemic would return and cause heavy damage.
One of the challenges of rural areas is the lack of awareness about the dangers of the virus.
According to the Vietnam Public Health Emergency Response Center, India is facing the most serious crisis ever caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of new cases recorded at a low level.
As of April 27, the world recorded about 150 million Covid-19 cases, of which more than 3.1 million people have died.
The boy fell asleep on the side of the highway in New Delhi, because his family could not catch the bus back home, March 29, 2020.
