India breaks 24-hour infection records, virus wreaks havoc on youngsters

NEW DELHI.– Ajay Singh Yadav managed to speak by video call with Raj Karan before his friend joined the alarming list of young Indians, many of whom are children, victims of the new wave of coronavirus that has hit the country, which came back yesterday to break another record with over 261,500 new infections in just 24 hours.

There are doctors who claim that if people under 45 are particularly vulnerable, it is because they will work and eat more often outside the home, but there is no data for the to prove. This may be because they are more inclined to new “double mutant” variant found in 60% of virus samples from Maharashtra, the worst-affected state.

Karan, 38, was campaigning for local elections in her village when she began to feel ill. Yadav took him to hospital, but he also tested positive and was quarantined. “I am destroyed […] I could only see it thanks to a video call, ”says Yadav, 39, in the city of Lucknow (north).

The country of 1.3 billion people is ravaged by a new wave that has caused a million infections in one week, and the authorities are overwhelmed.

At the beginning of the year, India believed it had conquered the pandemic and initiated a mass vaccination campaign. Chinstrap and safety distances were put aside and religious festivities and election rallies were packed with people.

But, in hospitals, doctors began to notice the increase in cases and the fact that more and more young people were sick, a novelty in a disease which, until then, seemed to pose a risk especially for the elderly. .

In a country where around 65% of the population is under 35, the impact of Covid-19 on young people is of increasing concern.

New Delhi chief executive Arvind Kejriwal said 65% of patients are under 45.

Fewer than 100 intensive care beds were available in India’s capital, out of more than 20 million people, Kejriwal said yesterday, as social media was inundated with complaints about the lack of beds, oxygen and medicine.

India’s medical research agency has no data on this, but doctors in major cities have confirmed that they are seeing more and more young patients.

“We are also seeing children under 12 and 15 who come in with symptoms in this second wave. Last year there were hardly any children, ”says Khusrav Bajan, specialist at PD Hinduja National Hospital in Mumbai and a member of the Maharashtra Covid-19 task force.

In the state of Gujarat, pulmonologist Amit Dave stipulate that, in the case of young people, Covid-19 manifested itself in a “more serious” way in the lungs, kidneys and heart. A hospital in Gujarat enabled the creation of the country’s first pediatric wing dedicated to patients with coronavirus.

“Everyone on my wall [de Facebook], on my WhatsApp, he sends messages because they have tested positive, ”said editor-in-chief Tanu Dogra, 28, bedridden for a week in March, after testing positive for Covid-19.

Meanwhile, authorities have imposed weekend lockdowns and curfews to stop the spread of the virus, but healthcare professionals are demanding the vaccination be extended to all age groups, as it is now limited to people over 45 years old.

A situation made worse by the collapse of hospitals.

Agencia AFP

THE NATION