Hospital to crematorium: A teenage Covid victimâs last journey
Kajal Kamat, 18, died after a week battling the malady in Delhiâs LNJP Hospital.
Mortuary workers accompany a body to assist with the last rites.
Itâs 1 pm on Friday, the day Delhi would report 348 Covid fatalities, and I am outside the emergency ward of the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, the state governmentâs largest Covid treatment facility. A signboard on the premises declares the grim situation in big red letters â Beds Available: Nil.
A young woman sees my press card and walks over. Her sister was admitted three days ago, she says, and she and her brother-in-law have been waiting outside since. Why are they waiting, I ask, they wonât be allowed in to see her? âIn case she needs anything,â she replies. âWhat if they run out of oxygen and we have to get it for her at a moment s notice?â
Delhi crematoriums operate at maximum level to keep up with rising deaths
By IANS |
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Delhi crematoriums operate at maximum level to keep up with rising deaths. Image Source: IANS News
New Delhi, April 23 : Rahul came to Nigambodh Ghat on Friday for funeral of her sister who was eight months pregnant. She died due to Covid related complications in LNJP. The family hails from Paharganj, New Delhi and was at the ghat for the funeral. Rahul alleged, My cousin sister was eight months pregnant and her tummy was flat when she was brought here. I don t know what scam is going on.
Ramadan Concerns Climb; New Curbs on Indian Fliers: Virus Update Bloomberg 1 hr ago Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) Southeast Asia’s biggest predominantly Muslim nations are tightening movement restrictions to avert a possible surge in Covid-19 infections around the Ramadan holidays. Direct flights from India and Pakistan into Canada were suspended, and the U.K. announced a mandatory quarantine for travelers from India, which is recording record Covid cases and deaths.
China is expected to approve the BioNTech vaccine for distribution before July and will relax its requirement that inbound travelers have a jab made by a Chinese company, two signals that the country’s eager to bring home citizens stranded abroad and kickstart international travel. South Korea reported nearly 800 new coronavirus cases, more than double a Febuary low and the highest overall numbers since mid-January.
Bodies piling up at crematoriums and burial grounds across India are sparking concerns that the death toll from a ferocious new Covid-19 wave may be much higher than official records, underplaying the scale of a resurgence that is overwhelming the country’s medical system. Several cities across the South Asian nation have reported shocking details of bodies, wrapped in protective gear and identified by hospitals as virus-related deaths, lined up outside crematoriums for hours. Accounts collated by Bloomberg from relatives of the dead and workers and eyewitnesses at crematoriums in at least five cities indicate that the real number of Covid fatalities could be significantly higher than the deaths being reported by local government health departments.
Representative image
NEW DELHI: The number of Covid-protocol funerals in the city continues to spike, with the civic report stating that 432 such funerals took place on Wednesday till 7pm up from 193 on April 16. Over 410 Covid funerals were conducted on Tuesday, 357 on Monday and 290 on Sunday. A total of 1,947 Covid-protocol funerals have taken place in the six days since April 16. The consistent rise means the crematoria in Mangolpuri, Dwarka and Subhash Nagar are running beyond their Covid-reserved capacity while the Panchkuian Road burning ghat is catering to almost double 27 instead of 15 Covid patients’ bodies daily. The rush has led to longer waiting times for grieving families.