India’s COVID death toll is 400,000 – half died in the second wave Coronavirus pandemic News

India has reached a stern milestone with 400,000 deaths in India, half of which have surpassed the health system and incinerators in the last wave.

India has registered 30.45 million cases since the pandemic broke out last year and is the second most affected country after the United States, with 33 million cases.

The U.S. has killed at least 604,000 people and killed about 518,000 people in Brazil.

India, the second most populous nation in the world, recorded 853 deaths in the last 24 hours, Health Ministry data showed on Friday. That exceeded 400,000 marks, and only added to the last 100,000 in 39 days, according to Reuters news agency.

Health experts believe that perhaps deaths in India have been significantly counted and the actual number could have reached a million or more.

In May a large number of corpses proliferated along the Ganges River in northern India as people struggled to keep pace with deaths and cremations at the peak of the second wave.

“Counting few deaths has happened in every state, especially due to delays in the system, so that means we will never have a true idea of ​​how many people we have lost in this second wave,” said Professor Rijo M John. Rajagiri University of Social Sciences in the southern city of Kochi.

Last month, Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, revised its COVID-19 death toll to 9,429 from 5,424 after receiving a court order.

India recorded a total of 200,000 deaths at the end of April, but it only took 28 days to get 300,000 deaths.

Hospitals were left in bed and without oxygen to save survivors in the second wave in April and May and people died outside the hospitals and in the parking lots of their homes.

Cases have been steadily declining since the summit in May, but government officials and experts have warned that a third wave is emerging as the country slowly reopens and a new variant, localized under the name Delta Plus, is on its mind.

The ‘black mushroom’ takes away his sight

Saheb Rao Shinde’s family believed the worst ended last month when he recovered from his 65-year-old COVID-19 at his home in western India. But a few weeks later, the seller of the stamps lost sight of one eye.

Thousands of people infected with the virus in the second catastrophic wave of COVID-19 also suffered from a rare fungal disease. mucormycosis or “black fungus”.

India has so far reported more than 40,845 cases of mucormycosis.

Patients with “black fungus” in a hospital room in Ahmedabad [Amit Dave/Reuters]

Many people like Shinde will never be able to regain sight of a fungal disease that causes their nose to blacken or stain, blurred or double vision, chest pain, difficulty breathing and coughing up blood.

“Dad was fit and healthy, now he doesn’t feel like eating …” said the daughter, who didn’t want to be named. “They even removed his teeth. It’s very sad.”

Shinde, from the arid region of western India’s Marathwada in the state of Maharashtra, will start work after recovering this, her daughter told Reuters in Mumbai.

Adesh Kumar, a 39-year-old farmer from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, lost his eye in his left eye. He had to borrow money to pay for medicines, secured against some of his lands.

India ordered strict surveillance for mucormycosis in May as it increased the challenge of COVID-19 patients, especially in the treatment of steroids and those with diabetes.

Experts say that overuse of certain drugs that suppress the immune system can lead to an increase in fungal infection.

“We are seeing many cases of mucormycosis after COVID infections as COVID itself is known to decrease immunity,” said Charuta Mandk of the ophthalmology department at Dr RN Cooper Municipal Hospital in Mumbai.