NEW DELHI, KOMPAS.com – Photos taken from a height show the atmosphere in the capital city India, New Delhi saat cremation mass carried out in the parking lot of the victim Covid-19 after 306 people died within 24 hours in the city.
New Delhi resident Nitish Kumar was forced to keep his mother’s body at home for two days when he struggled to find a crematorium in the city that could burn his mother’s body.
WARNING: This article contains a story that may irritate some readers.
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Nitish Kumar then cremated his mother’s body Thursday in a makeshift facility set up in a parking lot not far from the official crematorium in Seemapuri in northeast Delhi.
“I’ve been looking everywhere, but all the crematoriums are full. One of them said they don’t have any more wood to burn bodies,” said Kumar, who was wearing a mask, closing his eyes watering from the smoke from the burning fire.
India recorded the highest daily case record in the world with 314,835 cases on Thursday (22/4/2021) in the second wave of the pandemic that has crippled the country’s health system.
In Delhi alone, where hospitals no longer have oxygen cylinders, the number of cases a day is 26,000.
In the last 24 hours in Delhi alone, 306 people have died and made various open spaces available to be used as cremation sites, a tradition practiced by many Indian Hindus.
Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sewa Dal, Jitender Singh Shunty from a non-governmental organization engaged in medical services, said that as of Thursday afternoon, 60 bodies had been cremated in a man-made facility in a parking lot, and 15 more were waiting to be cremated.
“Nobody in Delhi is going to see anything like this again,” said Shunty with tears in his eyes.
“There were children aged five, 15 years, 25 years who were cremated. There were couples newlyweds who was also cremated. It’s sad to see all this. “
Shunty, who wore personal protective equipment and a bright yellow turban, said last year during the peak of the first wave, he had cremated 18 people a day, with an average of 8 to 10 bodies per day.
But on Tuesday (20/4/2021), according to him, in just one place there were 78 bodies that were cremated.
Nitish Kumar said that when his mother, a government health worker, tested positive for Covid-19 ten days ago, the government could not find a hospital to treat him.
“The government cannot do anything. Only we alone can save our families,” he said.
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Australia and Canada limit flights from India
On Thursday (22/4/2021), Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that chartered aircraft and direct flights from India would be reduced by 30 percent, and travel to India was also restricted.
Prime Minister Morrison said the return of Australians and Australian permanent residents from “high-risk countries” was an important issue, but Australians in India said they had long had difficulty getting flights to return.
The Canadian government also said it would ban flights from India and Pakistan for 30 days starting Thursday as part of efforts to prevent the spread of the virus.
This prohibition does not apply to the delivery of goods.
The behavior of people who do not heed health protocols in recent weeks, where the masses gather for political and religious activities is said to be the main cause of the increase in cases.
Also read: Corona in India Worsens, Health Infrastructure Collapses, Oxygen and Beds Run Out
The emergence of a new variant that is more virulent in spreading the virus is another reason.
“Around the world we are seeing that the second wave is always more dangerous and deadlier than the first wave,” Dr Deepak Baid of the Indian Association of Medical Consultants in Mumbai told ABC.
“So then the question is whether we have prepared ourselves? The answer is definitely no.”
Journalist Barkha Dutt said she spent weeks reporting cases from hospitals and cremation sites.
“I describe this as a messy country. Everywhere I feel is a mixture of anger, sadness, loss and a sense of helplessness,” said the woman journalist.
“It feels so heartbreaking, but at the same time what is happening is beyond our limits. This is a disaster, it is like being at war. And I just feel that I have to tell what happened and sue those in power. That’s the only thing. my way of surviving. “
Also read: Canada bans flights from India because the Covid-19 case is getting worse
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