{"id":9571,"date":"2021-05-03T18:13:37","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T18:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?p=9571"},"modified":"2021-05-03T16:47:45","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T16:47:45","slug":"the-lessons-sa-can-learn-from-the-covid-19-situation-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/the-lessons-sa-can-learn-from-the-covid-19-situation-in-india","title":{"rendered":"The lessons SA can learn from the Covid-19 situation in India"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>India\u2019s Covid-19 outbreak is a global problem and elements of their disaster can befall any number of countries, including South Africa.<\/p>\n

Senior lecturer from the Department of Global Health at Stellenbosch University, Dr Jo Barnes, says the pandemic situation in India has resulted from a series of overlapping factors and South Africa should be alert to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cInadequate government response, poor co-operation of the population with common-sense precautions, denials and late preparation for disasters are elements that we are all too familiar with. South Africa should take heed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

India has recorded the world\u2019s sharpest spike in coronavirus infections this month, and reported more than 400 000 new cases on Saturday, a global record.<\/p>\n

The country has recorded over 19.6 million cases and 216 000 deaths.<\/p>\n

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement last week that the situation in India \u201cis beyond heartbreaking\u201d.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the lessons South Africa can learn from the outbreak in India:<\/p>\n

Politicians who downplayed the pandemic<\/b><\/p>\n

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan spoke during a Delhi Medical Association Conference in March and said that India was \u201cin the endgame\u201d of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

“Unlike most other countries, we have a steady supply of Covid-19 vaccines that are safe with proven immunogenicity and efficacy,” he said.<\/p>\n

While politicians were celebrating their Covid-19 pandemic response success, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was campaigning for the upcoming election and boasted that he had never seen such crowds at election rallies.<\/p>\n

\u201cA pandemic cruelly shows up any lack of consensus and cohesion in management and governance. It is hard to banish religious festivals, for instance, if political rallies are allowed. So governments facing internal strife and discord will fare far worse than other countries where the government is trusted and the control measures largely obeyed,\u201d said Barnes.<\/p>\n

Large social gatherings<\/b><\/p>\n

The Kumbh Mela, or pitcher festival, is one of the most sacred pilgrimages in Hinduism and runs through April. It was estimated that 25 million pilgrims gathered to bathe in the Ganges River.<\/p>\n

Barnes said that large gatherings, including festivals, overcrowded malls and sports matches, without adequate social distancing, mask-wearing and sanitising, could be a contributing factor to the alarmingly increasing number of cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoliticians who did not want the election campaigns hampered, and religious figures who did not want religious freedoms curtailed, encouraged the widespread belief that India has avoided a catastrophe and is safe,\u201d said Barnes.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s second wave driven by the B.1.617 variant<\/b><\/p>\n

Several scientists suspect that the second wave in India is being driven by the appearance of a variant of the virus listed as B.1.617.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longer this explosive stage of the pandemic in India is raging out of control with slow implementation of vaccination, the higher the risk that several other dangerous variants will appear,\u201d said Barnes.<\/p>\n

The variant has also been discovered in 17 other countries, including Uganda, Germany, the UK and US.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens in India will find its way to other countries, some of which may be equally unable to cope with the deluge of cases,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Shortage of oxygen<\/b><\/p>\n

India has alarmingly low stocks of oxygen to treat seriously ill Covid-19 patients. Oxygen therapy is crucial for patients with hypoxaemia, which is when oxygen levels in the blood are too low.<\/p>\n

\u201cReports abound of patients who died due to low oxygen pressure or not receiving oxygen that they desperately needed, as well as sick patients being turned away in their thousands from medical facilities because there is no space to accommodate them and no oxygen or antiviral medication to treat them,\u201d said Barnes.<\/p>\n

[email protected]<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. India\u2019s Covid-19 outbreak is a global problem and elements of their disaster can befall any number of countries, including South Africa. Senior lecturer from the Department of Global Health at Stellenbosch University, Dr Jo Barnes, says the pandemic situation in India has resulted from a series of overlapping factors and South Africa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-9571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nThe lessons SA can learn from the Covid-19 situation in India - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"India\u2019s Covid-19 outbreak is a global problem and elements of their disaster can befall any number of countries, includi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/the-lessons-sa-can-learn-from-the-covid-19-situation-in-india\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The lessons SA can learn from the Covid-19 situation in India\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"India\u2019s Covid-19 outbreak is a global problem and elements of their disaster can befall any number of countries, includi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/the-lessons-sa-can-learn-from-the-covid-19-situation-in-india\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-03T18:13:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/05\/img-6090291c1aa50.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"404\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/the-lessons-sa-can-learn-from-the-covid-19-situation-in-india#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/the-lessons-sa-can-learn-from-the-covid-19-situation-in-india\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"The lessons SA can learn from the Covid-19 situation in India\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-03T18:13:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/the-lessons-sa-can-learn-from-the-covid-19-situation-in-india\"},\"wordCount\":610,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/the-lessons-sa-can-learn-from-the-covid-19-situation-in-india#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/05\/img-6090291c1aa50.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/the-lessons-sa-can-learn-from-the-covid-19-situation-in-india#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/the-lessons-sa-can-learn-from-the-covid-19-situation-in-india\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/the-lessons-sa-can-learn-from-the-covid-19-situation-in-india\",\"name\":\"The lessons SA can learn from the Covid-19 situation in India - 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