Key Factors Fuelling India's Second COVID Surge

Abstract

Having declared in autumn of 2020, that India had defeated Coronavirus, the steep rise of cases in April-May 2021, caught the authorities unawares. The health care infrastructure was rapidly overwhelmed at every level and equally in the national capital, large and small cities and the vast rural populace. The human catastrophe that was unfolding in front of the digitally connected world was heart-breaking.
 The natural ingredients of a battered economy (-23.9% GDP), a large populace (1.34 billion), poor public health, a chronic epidemic of diseases such as tuberculosis, diabetes, hypertension or kidney disease, chronic underfunding of healthcare infrastructure (1.8% of GDP), deficiency of healthcare workforce (estimated deficit of 600,000 doctors and 2 million nurses) and disjointed, disordered leadership combined with an incoherent, incohesive healthcare policy led to the disaster.
 After relative stabilisation from the first few weeks of the impact of colossal lack of hospital beds, oxygen, supported ventilation, life-saving drugs, safe and dignified disposal of the dead, and any form of coordinated disaster response, there is now the new epidemic of the black fungus. This editorial explores the emergence of this new health challenge for India and issues a call to rally.

COVID‐19 and black fungus: Analysis of the public perceptions through machine learning

“…During the coronavirus pandemic, hospital management systems in several nations crumbled due to the unrestrained rate of COVID-19 infection. 34 Many hospitals were even forced to turn away patients in dire need. People expressed fewer positive feelings (joy) about education, hospitals, quarantine, oxygen, and vaccines than negative feelings.…”

“…This indicated that people's perceptions regarding healthcare management to handle black fungus and COVID‐19 patients during this pandemic were not satisfactory. During the coronavirus pandemic, hospital management systems in several nations crumbled due to the unrestrained rate of COVID‐19 infection 34 . Many hospitals were even forced to turn away patients in dire need.…”