Three women in India get rabies shot instead of Covid-19 vaccine as cases surge, overtaking Brazil
Officials said the women in Kandla village, instead of going to the floor where the vaccine was being administered, entered the outpatient wing on April 9, a day when anti-rabies shots were being given. The pharmacist on duty had left, and in his absence a colleague gave the shot without checking the women's papers.
India has in the past few weeks gone from euphoria at having seemingly escaped the worst predictions of catastrophe to gloom at the speed and scale of the second wave. Though the health ministry on Sunday said it had become the fastest country in the world to administer more than 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, India is now experiencing its worst surge of the pandemic, with a seven-day rolling average of more than 130,000 cases per day.
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India took 85 days to reach 100 million doses, while the US and China had administered 92 million and 61 million doses respectively in that timeframe, according to local media reports using data from the health ministry.
The authorities on Monday announced there had been 168,912 new infections recorded in the previous 24 hours, a day after posting a six-month high of 152,879 cases. Its total caseload of more than 13.5 million is now second only to the 31.2 million cases in the US, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The death count has also been rising steadily and now stands at 170,179, with 904 new deaths reported Monday.
Bollywood is embodying the resurgence of the disease, with barely a day passing without a star announcing that they have tested positive. Given that the film industry is based in Mumbai - the capital of Maharashtra, the worst-affected state in India - the news is perhaps unsurprising. The state is struggling with a shortage of ventilator-supported ICU beds and oxygen cylinders, according to the NDTV news agency.
Both Maharashtra and New Delhi, the capital, are mulling statewide lockdowns, NDTV reported citing government sources. Temporary Covid-19 facilities that had been closed are reopening, crematoria are preparing to deal with an influx of bodies, and private hospitals are once again saying they have no free beds in the intensive care unit.
India's vaccination drive is also struggling. Despite having administered 100 million doses, the figure is a long way from the 70 per cent of the country's 1.3 billion people that experts say need to receive the jab to achieve herd immunity, while the supply of vaccines has also become a problem.
The stockpiles of the country's two manufacturers, the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech, have become depleted as the vaccination drive has progressed. This means India now has to depend on current production, which is not enough to sustain the current rate of around 4 million vaccinations every day that it needs to achieve its herd-immunisation goals.
Supplies will come under further strain in coming weeks as the second shot comes due for the millions who have received their first jab. "This will consume a significant proportion of the vaccine available, leaving little protection for other first-dosers," social commentator Santosh Desai wrote in a blog for The Times of India.
What is urgently needed, some experts say, is for India's drug regulator to accelerate approval for other vaccines.
"What we really require is at least 7 million to 10 million doses per day, just to cover the vulnerable population in the next two to three months ... I don't see that happening with the current availability of only two vaccines," said Giridhar R. Babu, professor at the Public Health Foundation of India in Bangalore, in an interview with local media.
The two vaccines on which India's entire vaccination drive depends - Covishield and Covaxin - were given "emergency use" approval to help the country cope with the pandemic.
Other vaccines - such as those developed by Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer - have yet to receive approval from the Indian drug regulator.
Several Indian drug companies have signed agreements to manufacture these vaccines, but production cannot begin unless they are formally approved.
Some Indian media reports have suggested the current situation is so alarming that the drug regulator is going to speed up the process of granting emergency approval. One report, quoting a government official, said five new vaccines would be available by October.
Yet his Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules the state of Uttarakhand, has allowed the month-long Hindu festival of Kumbh Mela, which takes place every 12 years, to go ahead in the city of Haridwar amid the surge in infections.
Monday is regarded as a particularly auspicious day to take a dip in the River Ganges and several million pilgrims have gathered in the city, many without masks, packing the banks of the river in scenes no different from pre-pandemic times.
"There is no such thing as coronavirus. I urge Hindus to come here and celebrate. There is nothing to worry about," Atish Sharma, a pilgrim, told a local television channel.
Meanwhile, migrant labourers, hearing about more curbs on activity and possible lockdowns in some states, have started leaving for their homes while buses and trains are still available. They fear a repeat of last year's national lockdown when, left without employment or income, they were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres to their homes because there was no public transport.
"It's OK for politicians to have huge election rallies [five states have held local assembly elections this year] with no one following Covid-19 protocols. But for us, it's always a lockdown that stops us earning a living," said one labourer at New Delhi railway station on his way to his village in Bihar.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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