The second COVID-19 wave that struck India is nothing short of a catastrophe. It is having a devastating effect across Indian cities and towns and has overwhelmed hospitals, morgues and crematoriums.Families are left to scramble for scarce Covid-19 medications and oxygen, even though India is the world’s biggest producer of COVID-19 vaccines.
On May 1, India surpassed global records when it recorded 400,000new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours. This was after 10 consecutive days of more than 300,000 daily cases. According to India’s federal health ministry, deaths jumped by 3,523, taking the country’s total toll to 211,853. This is the world’s fastest-growing Covid-19 surge since the start of the pandemic. It has overwhelmed India’s health-care system, leaving families to care for the infected as hospitals ran short of beds and were turning away patients.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the staggering spike of infections in India was due to mass gatherings and more contagious variants. Other health experts blame mass religious gatherings and political rallies for the severity of this second wave, which they saidcaught the Indian government unprepared. Indeed, millions of Indian citizens who were largely unmasked, attended religious gatherings as well as election rallies held by leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and opposition politicians.
COVID-19 cases had started to drop in India last September, after a high figure of 100,000 daily infections. But they began to rise again in March and the current peak is more than double the previousspike. The current low daily infection rate in Nigeria should not, therefore, be assumed to foreclose an upsurge. Nigerians should know that the arrival of the first batch of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in the country should not cause us to ease or ignore COVID-19 protocols. More so, Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shu’aib, recently said the same vaccines are due to expire on June 28 and July 9, 2021.
With our precarious healthcare system, any major spike in COVID-19 infections in Nigeria could be catastrophic. The PSC on COVID-19 must keep reminding Nigerians that the pandemic is not over. We call on Nigerians to take responsibility and stay safe byobserving all COVID-19 protocols. We must learn a lesson from the unfolding tragedy in India.
