New Delhi: As we experience the second wave of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic all over the country in the last few days, there has been a sense of gloom and doom with regard to the increasing number of deaths and the allegations of under reporting of the same in various states. The situation in the Capital city of New Delhi and other states including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala remains grim with the number of infections rising alarmingly. India reported 217,353 coronavirus cases and nearly 12 hundred deaths in the last 24 hours.
What is appalling in the already disastrous situation is the lack of health infrastructure and mismanagement of the available medical infra in the states like Maharshtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. While the hospitals in the national Capital are full of patients, there is a shortage of Oxygen and other medical equipments. The same thing is happening in the financial capital of the country Mumbai.
Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in the country reported more than 20 thousand Covid-19 cases and 67 deaths in the last twenty four hours. Locknow is most affected by the virus and officials put the death toll at 124 in the last seven days there. But the ground reality is a bit different with all the crematoriums in the city reporting fourfold funerals daily in the last few days. The death count has been a matter of scrutiny in social media as photos and videos go viral where the crematoroiums can be seen working round the clock.
There are also allegations coming that the city administration is covering the crematoriums with tin sheets so that nobody can know the correct number of deaths due to Covid-19. The Lucknow Municipal Corporation has also increased the number of funeral platforms in its crematoriums to speed up the cremation process.
The Uttar Pradesh Government has also countered the allegations saying the deaths which were registered with the Chief Medical Officer are officially presented and people belonging to other cities and districts who died in Lucknow are also being cremated in the city.
In Gujarat, the situation is getting out of hand day by day. Crematoriums in the biggest cities of Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara are seeing an ever increasing number of dead bodies in the last few days. While the crematoriums go for innovative ideas such as cremating four to five dead bodies on a pire, the reality is shocking and desperate. There has been allegations that the number of dead bodies cremated in the crematoriums in the state and the number of deaths official reports give are mismatching and bringing out suspicion. The government on the other hand is saying that the co-morbid deaths are not being counted as Covid-19 deaths according to guidelines.