India's COVID tsunami leaves bodies piling up as oxygen, medicines, vaccines and hospital beds run short

New Delhi — Most hospitals are full. In some cases, two patients share a bed. Stocks of oxygen, medicines and vaccines are all running out. Doctors and nurses are overworked. Thousands of patients are dying every day, leaving bodies to pile up outside crematoriums and graveyards. There's panic in the air as coronavirus cases multiply across India at the most fearsome rate since the pandemic struck more than a year ago. 

India's second wave really started gaining steam this month, with the daily count of new infections repeatedly setting new records throughout April. The total number of COVID-19 cases reported in India now stands at over 15 million. More than 1.5 million of those infections have been reported in the last seven days alone. The daily average is now about 220,000 new cases — the fastest rate of COVID-19 spread in the world.  The second wave started in mid-March, and was underestimated on many levels: Many Indians had lowered their guard and stopped taking precautions, including wearing masks and maintaining social distancing; the government took several missteps, including allowing massive election campaign events and a huge religious gathering; even many experts predicted the second wave wouldn't be as bad as the first.