India is now the fourth most affected country in the world by the Covid-19 pandemic

Audio 02:33

By: Sébastien Farcis Follow

The coronavirus continues to spread rapidly in India, which has become the fourth most affected country in the world with 380,000 cases and 13,000 deaths. The contagion is particularly virulent in big cities like New Delhi, which concentrates 12% of the cases of the country and where the hospitals are already struggling to cope. Report in the capital of our correspondent.

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Ambulances burst into Lok Nayak Jai Prakash, New Delhi's largest public hospital dedicated to Covid-19. Sumita Sompal, a blue scarf as a mask, is worried. It's been 10 days since her husband was hospitalized, but he still doesn't have the results of his Covid-19 test. "  He had dengue fever but they also suspected the Covid-19. Now he's locked up in this hospital and he tells me that he sees corpses of abandoned patients. I want him to go out, because if he doesn't have the Covid, he'll catch him !  "

Officially, only 40% of the 2,000 beds in the hospital are occupied, but this crisis has created new problems, recognizes Ritu Saxena, the hospital coordinator for Covid-19. “  We need staff, because before, the families of the patients took care of their daily needs. Now we can't let them in, so we take care of everything. For now the situation is under control, but that can quickly change if thousands of patients arrive every day, as expected.  "

New Delhi authorities estimate that the number of cases will double in two weeks in the capital, and is expected to multiply by 10 by the end of July to exceed 500,000 cases. So far, New Delhi has only had 10,000 beds dedicated to the Covid-19. The government is therefore converting train cars, hotels and wedding halls into makeshift hospitals.

In the meantime, the hearses keep arriving in the Hindu crematorium of Nigambodh Ghat, north of the city. The number of corpses arriving here every day has increased by 50% in a few weeks. And this sometimes offers visions of horror to bereaved families. Like that of Nidhi Gupta, who awaits the cremation of his mother. “  They took my mother's body and stacked it with nine other bodies in an ambulance. It's inhuman ! We treat humans worse than animals. We ask only one thing of the government : save Delhi !  "

This 48-year-old woman died, like thousands of others, before receiving the results of her Covid-19 test. The laboratories are overwhelmed and the authorities have therefore promised to triple the rate of tests, among other things thanks to a technique called antigen, cheaper and less precise, but which offers results in 30 minutes.

Spread of covid-19 in India: the numbers

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