COVID-19 in India
Courtesy of Project India
COVID-19, the pandemic that was infamously discovered in 2019, has caused an unimaginable loss of human life worldwide. With year-long nationwide lockdowns leading to vast social and economic disruptions, COVID-19 has transformed human life in a myriad of ways.
While all demographic groups have been impacted severely, poorer and developing nations like India particularly underwent a never-before-experienced crisis: disproportionate to the rest of the world. India battled against the pandemic with ill-equipped health infrastructure, a declining GDP, overpopulation, and millions of minimum-wage migrant workers. What started with 3 cases of COVID-19 infection in January 2020 amassed to a total of 32.2 million by 17 August 2021.
What percentage of these deaths were due to a lack of healthcare resources? Why did so many migrant workers lose their jobs during the pandemic? Does India have enough vaccine doses available yet? Through insights from official open-source data, Project India sought to answer important questions like these.
Impact of Strained Indian Healthcare System on Deaths Due to COVID-19:
India, the world’s second-largest populated country, has been grievously affected by the COVID-19 due to the lethal combination of unmanageable patient loads and lack of healthcare resources — such as oxygen, hospital beds, and ventilators — especially during the second wave of COVID-19 in 2021.
Project India analyzed the data on deaths caused by the lack of oxygen in hospitals during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The deaths recorded are based upon reports from newspapers and news media (in English and regional languages), social media, and networks of volunteers working directly on the ground.
Notably, with hospitals quickly reaching their maximum capacity during the second wave, healthcare providers faced a new challenge: lack of oxygen. With oxygen playing a significant role in treating patients, the death rate exponentially began to increase. This visualization shows that the deaths due to oxygen shortage in Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu were greater than 50, significantly exceeding other regions. These cities are densely populated, which could explain a higher death rate, as a greater number of people are admitted to hospitals.
Project India also analyzed the number of deaths from April 5 to May 18. During this time, oxygen resources were extremely rare. As shown in the visualization, there were a total of 619 over the span of 43 days. April 23rd had the highest death count, with a total of 60.
As seen from Project India’s research, the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted upon society unimaginable consequences, leaving India with a shortage of a necessary healthcare resources to the survival of human life. In light of these findings, this pandemic has shown us a need for change. The Center for Global Development has suggested that India restructure its model of medical oxygen supply, from the hospital and government’s end. While recovering from this pandemic, it is the hope that India can learn from this oxygen shortage and implement the changes necessary to avoid it in the future.
