Tom Williams
Smoke from dozens of small fires can be seen billowing up from a makeshift crematorium in the Indian capital New Delhi, each representing a new death in the country’s Covid-19 crisis. With existing crematoriums overwhelmed, temporary facilities have had to be set up to burn the hundreds of virus victims currently dying every day in the struggling country. ‘People are just dying, dying and dying,’ said Jitender Singh Shanty, who is coordinating the cremation of around 100 bodies a day at the site in the east of the city. ‘If we get more bodies then we will cremate on the road. There is no more space here.’ Images showed smoke billowing from dozens of pyres lit inside a parking lot that has been turned into a temporary crematorium. The bright, glowing fires are burning all day and well into the night – lighting up the dark sky. Crematoriums are being forced to skip individual ceremonies and the exhaustive rituals that Hindus believe release the soul from the cycle of rebirth. ‘The virus is swallowing our city’s people like a monster,’ said Mamtesh Sharma, an official at Bhadbhada Vishram Ghat crematorium in Bhopal. ‘We are just burning bodies as they arrive. It is as if we are in the middle of a war.’
India recorded more than 320,000 new cases of coronavirus infection on Tuesday taking the total to 17.6 million, the highest toll of any country bar the United States. The health ministry also reported another 2,771 deaths in 24 hours, with roughly 115 Indians succumbing to the disease every hour. Meanwhile, the first shipments of foreign aid have begun arriving in the struggling country, including 100 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators sent by the UK.
A makeshift crematorium in the Indian captial of New Delhi – one of the areas hardest hit by the latest wave of Covid (Picture: Reuters)
India now has the second highest caseload in the world (Picture: Reuters)
Crematoriums have become overwhelmed by the scale of the tragedy (Picture: Getty)
Around 115 Indians are estimated to by dying every hour (Picture: Reuters)
Tuesday’s total ended India’s five-day streak of recording the largest single-day increases in any country throughout the pandemic, but the decline likely reflects lower weekend testing rather than reduced spread of the virus. Foreign ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi tweeted photos on Tuesday of the first shipment of medical aid India has received. Other nations including the US, Germany, Israel, France and Pakistan have also promised medical aid to India. The countries have said they will supply oxygen, diagnostic tests, treatments, ventilators and protective gear to help India at a time of crisis which World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday called ‘beyond heartbreaking’.
The health ministry reported another 2,771 deaths in 24 hours (Picture: Getty)
The first shipments of aid sent by the UK to India have arrived (Picture: Gov.uk)
One worker said if there are more bodies, they will have to cremate on the road (Picture: Rex)
Other countries have also pledged to support India (Picture: Gov.uk)
The surge, spurred by new variants of coronavirus, has undermined the Indian government’s premature claims of victory over the pandemic. The country of nearly 1.4 billion people is facing a chronic shortage of space on its intensive care wards. Hospitals are experiencing oxygen shortages and authorities have begun to treat people in train carriages due to a lack of beds. India has also started airlifting oxygen tankers to states in need. Special trains with oxygen supplies are also running in the country.