Yesterday, Thursday, India announced the highest increase in the number of deaths from the emerging coronavirus “Covid-19” in a single day in the world, as 6148 new deaths were recorded over the past 24 hours, so what caused this rise in deaths after the country recorded a decrease In injuries during the last period?
It fell Corona virus infections in India in recent days, as reported country about 94 thousand and 52 new cases within 24 hours until Thursday morning, down from peak new daily cases exceeded 400 thousand, according to report of newspaper ” Independent” ( Independent ) British. Read also Symptoms of black fungus.. 18 signs of infection The black fungus that hits Corona patients in India may force surgeons to remove the eyes to stop its spread These Arab countries deny the appearance of the black fungus that ravaged Corona patients in India The new Corona strain in Vietnam is a hybrid of the Indian and British versions and is spreading through the air
There are possible reasons for this rise, including:
Modifying the mechanism for calculating the number of deaths
According to a report in “Reuters” (Reuters), this high number of Corona deaths in India came yesterday, Thursday, after major states in the east of the country adjusted their numbers to count those who died of the disease in their homes or in private hospitals.
The health authority in Bihar, one of the country’s poorest states, raised the total number of deaths from the disease on Wednesday to more than 9,400 from 5,400.
According to data from the Indian Ministry of Health, the total number of Corona injuries in India has risen to 29.2 million, and the total number of deaths has reached more than 359,000.
The official figure was revised after authorities conducted a review of the number of victims following a court hearing. In May, the Bihar state government came under fire from a court, after discrepancies were noted in the number of corona deaths in one district of the state, according to a report by Akshita Jain in The Independent .
State Health Minister Mangal Pandey told ANI that the government had heard from various sources that the actual number of deaths could be higher, and had directed district judges to prepare a report.
He explained that it took 15 to 20 days for the county judges to prepare the cumulative outcome report, and that his government’s goal now is to reach the families of those whose deaths have been reclassified as Covid deaths and provide them with financial assistance.
The review has once again raised concerns that coronavirus cases and deaths across India are being significantly underestimated. Health experts have repeatedly pointed to concerns, including those related to low testing rates in rural areas, where cases and deaths are not recorded.
Dr Prabhat Jha of the University of Toronto said earlier that people often die at home without medical care in rural areas, and these deaths largely go unreported.
Public health researcher Oomin John told The Independent in a previous report that one of the reasons for the discrepancy in the numbers; is that in some cases, family members may hide information that a person has tested positive for COVID-19, or has symptoms suggestive of the virus; Because the protocol for obtaining a death certificate related to COVID-19 is very complicated.
And as experts spoke to newspaper “New York Times” ( New York Times ) US last month that in conservative scenario, may be true number of deaths Kovid in India about 600 thousand, real number of infections about 15 times higher than official figure.
The Indian government rejected the New York Times report, calling it “baseless and outrageous”.
large gatherings
Shekhar Chandra, a doctoral student in public policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote in Scientific American that the first wave of COVID-19 was relatively mild in India, and led to the country’s leadership declaring what turned out to be a premature victory over India. Corona Virus. The current wave is much more deadly. Some researchers and the media have blamed the new viral variants, which early studies suggest may be more transmissible than the original strain.
But many experts familiar with the situation on the ground argue that large gatherings and crowds in enclosed and compressed urban spaces – in contrast to the harsh lockdown imposed during the first wave – caused most of the outbreak.
“I think this is an important lesson for other countries,” says Carlos del Rio, professor of medicine in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Emory University School of Medicine. “It was complacency and poor leadership that caused the surge.”
The new sudden rise simply overshadowed India’s already faltering health infrastructure.
No nationally coordinated shutdown
According to Chandra, instead of a nationally coordinated shutdown, the states of India are left to their own individual administrations. For example, new daily infections in Maharashtra – the hardest-hit state during the first and second waves – increased more than 6 times last March.
On April 4, the state government announced a ban on gatherings of more than 5 people in public places during the day on weekdays, and anyone going out at night or on weekends without a valid reason (such as getting medication for a family member). But it seems that the curfew has not been implemented.
Also, the Delhi Union region, another hotspot for infections, announced restrictions on movement in the evening only on April 6, after new cases in the Indian capital increased more than 10-fold during the month of March; But most daytime activities continued as usual. Restrictions on driving personal vehicles and using public transportation, within or between states, have not been widely enforced. Most of the time, new cases were on the rise, and bars, restaurants, cinemas, the metro system and buses were still operating (albeit at reduced capacity).
Manoj Jain, an assistant professor at the Emory Rollins School of Public Health, explains that in crowded urban areas like Delhi, social distancing guidelines are nearly impossible to implement without a full lockdown, and that less stringent measures would not have done much to impede the spread of the virus, given the high rate of transmission.
Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, also imposed “half-hearted restrictions” during the second wave. It even went ahead with village council elections, and the state’s leading teachers’ union confirmed that more than 1,600 teachers who ran those elections died of COVID-19 during April and May, and the state government says only 3 died of the disease, a claim it contested. It is the teachers’ union, which released the names and addresses of those who died.
Scientific American said it had reached out to the offices of India’s prime minister and the chief ministers of several of its states for comment; But she did not receive an answer to her questions.