Covid-19 second wave: Can India find a way out of its health nightmare?

The health system in India has broken down, with scarcities in everything from hospital beds to oxygen, says Virologist Shahid Jameel in an interview with Bobby Ghosh

Bobby Ghosh: India is suffering the world’s worst Covid-19 crisis. The daily infection rate is more than 300,000; the daily death toll, in excess of 2,000, is very likely an undercount. The health system has broken down, with scarcities in everything from hospital beds to oxygen. The Indian government has restricted vaccine exports and is instead trying to secure supplies from abroad.

You’ve experienced this disaster firsthand as the head of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at the Ashoka University, near New Delhi. Last fall and winter, it looked like India was doing very well in managing its Covid outbreak.