When India emerged relatively unscathed from its first wave of Covid-19, there was a sense in the country that somehow it was an exception. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, had brought in a strict lockdown and it seemed to have worked: victory against the coronavirus was proclaimed.
The Guardian’s south Asia correspondent, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, tells Anushka Asthana that the situation now couldn’t be further from a victory against the virus. With a second wave spreading out of control across India, the healthcare system is unable to cope. Shortages of staff, beds and oxygen are compounding the catastrophe.
India’s crisis is also a crisis for us all. As the world’s foremost vaccine producer, it is now constrained in how much it can export due to dealing with this unprecedented domestic disaster.
Photograph: Rajanish Kakade/AP
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