India is reported to be experiencing a gigantic Covid second wave. Yesterday alone, the virus is said to have killed two thousand eight hundred and twelve Indians. In response to the catastrophe, the international community is organizing relief efforts. As the Spectator reports:
The UK and the US are leading the delivery of aid to India, as the country battles a fierce second wave. The UK has sent 600 medical devices, including ventilators and oxygen.
But while every death is a tragedy, it should be remembered that, of India's 1.37 billion inhabitants, more than 27,000 usually die each day. So, at the height of the Indian epidemic, Covid is responsible for about 10% of all deaths, or about 2.06 per million of population per day.
How does that compare with a first world country where the covid epidemic is past its peak and mass vaccination is said to be well on the way to creating herd immunity?
Well consider Canada: with a current, seven-day, mean daily death toll of 49, Covid is killing 1.33 people per million of population per day, or about two-thirds of India's current rate.
So, yes, in India, Covid is bringing forward some deaths, mainly among the old and frail. However, the impact of Covid in India, where yearly healthcare expenditures average around US$22 per person, is scarcely more catastrophic at its current peak than in post-peak-Covid Canada, a wealthy Western nation with yearly healthcare expenditures of around six thousand US dollars per person.
Postscript:
After posting the above I tuned into the BBC's World Service from London to hear a most extraordinary report from New Delhi, India, in which a journalist reported smoking funeral pyres to be seen in every direction, of rows of dead bodies awaiting cremation, and in general scenes reminiscent of Hell.
How to explain the discrepancy between the numbers and the radio report?
Well apparently the national numbers that I cited above are correct, according to the BBC (see figure below), but as the red line below indicates, the number of cases in the capital city of New Delhi is reported currently to be about four times the national average, and a rate that probably matches New York City during the worst days, in early 2020.
Meantime:
Related:
The Irish Savant: The India Covid crisis. More fake news
