India thought it had the virus beat. The virus had other ideas

Governments around the world keep repeating the same mistakes. In a country of 1.4 billion, the consequences are on a whole new scale

- Chris Kay and P R Sanjai

The snaking queue outside Maasaheb Meenatai Thackeray Hospital terrified Mariselvan Thevar. More than 200 people were in line, sagging in the heat as they coughed and wheezed. Some had come hoping to find a dose of coronavirus vaccine, which remains a scarce commodity in India. Others were trying to get their hands on medication, a bed, oxygen—anything.

A 21-year-old engineering student with a tall, lean frame and a patchy beard, Thevar thought he had little choice but to join the growing crowd outside the hospital, a small public facility in suburban Mumbai. His father, Kannan, had been ill for days. At 49, Kannan was far younger than the people who, for most of the pandemic, have experienced the worst outcomes from Covid-19. Yet Thevar grew increasingly anxious as they waited to be seen; his father was running a high fever, and even slight exertions left him breathless.

With just two overwhelmed doctors working, the hospital was allowing only a trickle of patients to enter its doors. After 10 hours in the baking sun, Thevar and his father were turned away. “The doctors were insisting patients go home, citing a shortage of beds, on the assurance that they will call them,” Thevar said. “They never call back.”

As the virus burns through India, this sense of futility and fear has become commonplace. The country is reporting nearly 400,000 confirmed infections and 4,000 deaths every day, tallies that are certain to be drastic undercounts. In Delhi, public parks have been requisitioned as makeshift crematoriums, with rows of funeral pyres burning where kids once played cricket. Hospital beds and oxygen cylinders are in short supply, as are doctors and nurses. Some researchers predict that the total number of fatalities—currently at 250,000—could top 400,000 by mid-June and then keep climbing.