Cape Town - Deaths have surged in India due to a second wave of the coronavirus, forcing funeral service providers and hospitals in Delhi to build makeshift funeral pyres in car parks.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India has recorded 17,636,307 Covid-19 cases and more than 197,894 lives have been lost.
The nation recorded more than 320,000 new infections on Tuesday, with the Guardian publication reporting that experts believe the reported figures are less than the actual number of victims.
“People are just dying, dying and dying,” said Jitender Singh Shanty, a cremations co-ordinator.
“If we get more bodies, then we will cremate on the road… There is no more space here,” he said.
Shanty added that he was co-ordinating more than 100 cremations and that they had not expected to see such horrible scenes.
Haunting images of India’s mass COVID-19 #Cremation site in #Ghazipur of Northern #Delhi :-(
— Dr. Shahid Siddiqui (@shahidsiddiqui) April 26, 2021
In order to keep up with demand, Ghazipur #crematorium in #NewDelhi was forced to set up a makeshift crematorium site in the car park. #CovidSOS #coronavirus #CovidIndia #death #India pic.twitter.com/Je0taLOLvy
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference on Monday that the pandemic continues to intensify globally and the situation in India is beyond heartbreaking.
He added that the WHO has provided India with critical equipment and supplies, including oxygen concentrators, prefabricated mobile field hospitals and laboratory supplies, and has redeployed more than 2,600 staff to support the response on the ground.
"Cases have now increased for the ninth straight week, and deaths have increased for the sixth straight week," said Tedros.
"To put it into perspective, there were almost as many cases globally last week as in the first five months of the pandemic," he said.
In India families are waiting hours to perform funeral rites, Reuters news agency reports, with at least one Delhi crematorium resorting to building pyres in its car park in order to cope with the numbers arriving.#IndiaNeedsOxygen #SOSDelhi #SOPsBetterThanVentilator pic.twitter.com/aD2qvfKA1x
— Shamoon Ali (@Shamoon_000) April 25, 2021
Meanwhile, various countries have pledged to help India, with the United States offering to export AstraZeneca vaccine doses, while China has encouraged its private companies to step up to assist India.
African News Agency (ANA)