-The Hindu Despite the debilitating pandemic, state investment in the health sector remains deeply inadequate. On May 18 this year, India recorded 4,529 deaths from COVID-19, the highest daily death toll recorded in the world after the United States in January saw 4,468 deaths. As India combats the pandemic, its neighbours are experiencing spillover from the menacing second wave. The virus has swept through Nepal, while Sri Lanka added as many as...

-ThePrint.in A flawed procurement process has resulted in hospitals getting cheap ventilators, many of which are unusable, say doctors even in BJP-ruled states. Maharashtra was witnessing an alarming surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths when 150 ventilators arrived at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Aurangabad in the third week of April. The Union health ministry had sent them. The hospital further distributed the machines to other district and private hospitals in...

-CaravanMagazine.in As the second wave of COVID-19 spreads to rural areas with minimal healthcare, villages across the Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh have been conducting a 21-day puja to ward off the virus. The puja involves worshipping and invoking the protection of local patron saints, collectively referred to as Dih Baba, and pacifying goddesses associated with epidemics, such as Sheetala Mata. “Hospitals are in terrible condition and there are no medicines,...

-PTI/ NDTV.com Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people take precautions against the coronavirus and warned against its spread in rural areas. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the coronavirus pandemic is rapidly spreading in rural areas, as he urged citizens to take precautions, wear masks and maintain social distance to check spread disease that has claimed at least 2.6 lakh lives. The government, he said, is working on "war footing"...

-Article-14.com In the sprawling rural hinterland beyond the Taj Mahal, in a region dotted with hospitals, we found a deluge of unreported and unrecorded sickness and death, because the administration of chief minister Yogi Adityanath discourages record keeping, restricts testing and insists the pandemic is under control. Agra (Uttar Pradesh): In normal times, only a few bodies were cremated every week at the Poiya Ghat crematorium in rural Agra, 12 km and...