India's Crisis Means the Pandemic Is Far From Over
From poor infrastructure to political miscalculations and bravado, the devastation is frustratingly predictable. Our columnists weigh in on the outbreak and what it means for the world.
A harrowing toll.
Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/BloombergCovid-19 is going to kill more people in 2021 than it did last year. To see why, look at India, where daily case numbers spiked to 314,835 Thursday, outstripping levels the U.S. experienced at the peak of its epidemic.
Signs that the country is cracking under the strain are legion — from shortages of vaccine stocks, hospital beds, oxygen supplies and even hearses, to crematoria breaking down under the sheer numbers of bodies they have to deal with. Social media has rung with pleas from desperate people unable to get help from a health system running past its limits. One journalist in Lucknow live-tweeted his own declining condition before dying.