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India Records 2 Million COVID-19 Cases

Anjana Pasricha

   NEW DELHI - With the fastest COVID-19 growth in the world, India has
   raced past 2 million cases, as public health experts warn that the
   pandemic in the world's second most populous country will not slow
   anytime soon.

   The grim milestone came as tens of thousands of community health
   workers went on a two-day strike, demanding better pay and saying they
   were not properly equipped to handle the highly contagious coronavirus.

   "This number was coming. If you are growing at four percent daily, it
   will jump from one million to two million in three weeks," points out
   virologist Shahid Jameel. "It is actually India's rate of increase that
   is worrying."

   Only two other countries have crossed the two million mark -- the
   United States and Brazil. India's tally is now nearly 2.03 million,
   according to the health ministry.

   The pandemic has increased in India since June, when authorities lifted
   a stringent lockdown to restart a battered economy. And while
   mega-cities like Delhi and Mumbai are now showing a downward trend,
   infections are accelerating in states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and
   Orissa, where the health infrastructure is inadequate.

   Concerns about coping with the onslaught deepened Friday, when a
   network of women community health workers known as Accredited Social
   Health Activists or ASHA (hope), who have been assisting local
   authorities in contact tracing and tracking people under quarantine,
   started a two-day strike.

   The nearly one million workers have been on the frontline for years in
   vaccination and maternal health programs in rural areas, where there is
   no direct access to health care facilities and where the virus has now
   reached.

   The protesting health workers, who are paid about $40 a month, are
   demanding higher wages, timely payments and proper medical gear, saying
   they did not have personal protective equipment or sanitizers.

   "At least 100 health workers have died of COVID-19 in the country so
   far, but there has been no insurance provided to them by the
   government," said A. R, Sindhu, secretary of the Centre of Trade
   Unions, a participant in the strike.

   Writing in the Times of India newspaper, virologist Jacob John and
   Zarir Udwadia said that the "pandemic had cruelly exposed our weakest
   link -- badly equipped and understaffed public hospitals, chronic
   shortages of hospital beds and unmotivated, poorly trained staff."

   Several public health experts blame the spiraling pandemic on India's
   failure to effectively implement strategies needed to limit the highly
   contagious virus -- testing, contact tracing to break the chain of
   transmission and isolation.

   India tests about 16,000 people per million -- a fraction of the number
   of tests conducted in the United States, say experts. Fear of
   contracting the virus has also become an impediment, they say.

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