India's efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic when it broke out last year had set an example given the country's population, but come this year, things have gone awry. In fact, the situation is worse than last year, when the world was still trying to figure out ways to cope with the virus. To put things in perspective, India is consequently registering over two lakh cases on a daily basis, with thousands losing their life to the virus. Taking note of this devastating statistic, former Indian Army chief Ved Malik on Twitter called out the Modi government over COVID deaths.
In a tweet on Sunday, Malik said that India is at war and the daily death toll is 2.5 times higher than the total killed in action in Kargil war. Malik also pointed out the congregations despite the spike in COVID cases and deaths and questioned if the nation is focused on this war.
"Our nation is at war.1338 Indians died due to pandemic yesterday(1182 day before): more than 2.5 times TOTAL killed in action in Kargil war. Is the nation focused on this war? Election rallies, Faith events, Farmer agitation, in-fighting over resources going on...Wake up India!" Malik tweeted.
India's COVID situation worsens
India has reported 2,61,500 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day spike ever, pushing the country's overall Covid tally to 1,47,88,109, according to the Health Ministry data released on Sunday.
This is the fourth consecutive day that the country has registered over two lakh Covid cases. India recorded 2,34,692 cases on Saturday, 2,00,739 and 2,17,353 cases on Thursday and Friday respectively. Meanwhile, as many as 1,501 people died of Covid in the last 24 hours, taking the country's death toll to 1,77,150 so far. The daily active cases tally rose to 18,01,316.
According to the government data, a total of 26,84,956 people were also vaccinated in the same period, taking the total inoculation count to 12,26,22,590.
Amidst all this, various states in India are facing acute shortage of oxygen, ICU beds, Remdesivir drug for the treatment of COVID patients, and in some cases, vaccines, too. Amidst this shortage, millions of devotees were seen on the banks of the Ganges river in Haridwar to take a dip in the water. With the elections on the horizon, political rallies are also attracting massive crowds, and in many cases, people are seen flouting COVID protocols of wearing face mask and following social distancing.
