July 02, 2021
Bus driver Shivaji Veer, 51, lost his eye due to black fungus.
Reuters
NEW DELHI - Saheb Rao Shinde's family thought the worst was over when the 65-year-old recovered from Covid-19 last month at his home in western India. But a few weeks later, the revenue-stamp vendor lost sight in one eye.
After a catastrophic second wave of Covid-19 in India since April which has seen its overall death toll climb to almost 400,000, thousands who contracted the virus also suffered from a rare fungal disease called mucormycosis, or "black fungus".
The South Asian country - which has more than 30.4 million confirmed Covid-19 infections, second only to the United States - has so far reported more than 40,845 cases of mucormycosis.