The number of COVID-19 cases in India began climbing dramatically last month, and daily infections now top 250,000, according to health-ministry data. Hospitals and crematoria are becoming overwhelmed, and vaccines, oxygen, and other medical supplies are becoming scarce. Larger cities have imposed new lockdowns, while at the same time, several large festivals have been allowed to take place elsewhere. India has now reported more than 15 million coronavirus infections since the beginning of the pandemic, and less than 10 percent of the population has received at least one vaccine dose. Gathered here are some images of the battle against COVID-19 in India over the past few weeks.
Photos: A Deadly Second Wave of COVID-19 in India
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Patients with breathing problems wear oxygen masks as they wait inside ambulances that are queued up in front of a COVID-19 hospital in Ahmedabad, India, on April 14, 2021. #
Amit Dave / Reuters -
Health worker Kavita Sherawat puts on a face mask as she prepares to take samples to test for COVID-19 in New Delhi on March 18, 2021. Despite dutifully wearing masks and always washing her hands, Sherawat got infected, as did her husband, parents, and in-laws. Although doctors and nurses were cheered as heroes during the lockdown, people avoided her, fearing infection. She tested thousands of sick and gasping people as they arrived at hospitals, not knowing whether the gear she wore was adequately protecting her. “That fear changes you as a person. You start valuing your life more,” she said. #
Manish Swarup / AP -
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A police officer rides a Segway in a deserted area between the Gateway of India and Taj Mahal Hotel ahead of the scheduled weekend lockdown imposed by the state government amid rising COVID-19 cases in Mumbai on April 9, 2021. #
Punit Paranjpe / AFP / Getty -
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A police officer urges a man to wear a face covering during an awareness campaign against the spread of COVID-19 at a traffic junction in Hyderabad on April 7, 2021. #
Noah Seelam / AFP / Getty -
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People wearing masks as a precaution against the coronavirus stand in queues to board trains at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai, India, on April 14, 2021. Migrant workers have swarmed rail stations in India's financial capital, Mumbai, to go to their home villages as virus-control measures have dried up available work in the hard-hit region. The government of Maharashtra state imposed lockdown-like curbs on Wednesday for 15 days to check the spread of the virus. It closed most industries, businesses, and public places and limited the movement of people, but it didn’t stop the bus, train, and air services. An exodus ensued, and panicked day laborers hauled backpacks onto overcrowded trains leaving Mumbai, travel that has raised fears of infection spreading in rural areas. #
Rafiq Maqbool / AP -
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A doctor is seen talking with a COVID-19 patient who is in quarantine in a banquet hall that was converted into an isolation center to handle the rising cases of infection, on April 15, 2021, in New Delhi. #
Anindito Mukherjee / Getty -
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People refill medical oxygen cylinders for COVID-19 patients at an oxygen refill station in Allahabad on April 20, 2021, amid dwindling oxygen supplies in the country. #
Sanjay Kanojia / AFP / Getty -
Hindu devotees walk around a bonfire during a ritual known as "Holika Dahan," which is part of the Holi festival celebrations, amid the spread of COVID-19, in Ahmedabad, India, on March 28, 2021. #
Amit Dave / Reuters -
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A health-care worker collects a swab sample from a man during a COVID-19 rapid-antigen-testing campaign, near the Gateway of India monument in Mumbai, on April 5, 2021. #
Niharika Kulkarni / Reuters -
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A man is consoled by his relative as he sees the body of his father, who died from COVID-19, before his burial at a graveyard in New Delhi, India, on April 16, 2021. #
Danish Siddiqui / Reuters -
A man performs the last rites for his relative, who died from COVID-19, amid multiple burning pyres of COVID-19 victims at a crematorium in New Delhi on April 17, 2021. #
Anindito Mukherjee / Getty -
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