Coronavirus New Wave Leaves Hospitals Overburdened Across India As Crematorium, Mortuaries Are Besieged

India’s crematoriums & burial grounds are working overtime to cope with the surging number of deaths from the country’s escalating coronavirus outbreak. Local media has been filled with grim reports of melting furnaces at crematoriums running non-stop, bodies piling up & smoke from continuously burning flesh creating another health risk for locals. Amid the recent surge in Covid-19 cases & related deaths, bodies of coronavirus patients are piling up at various hospitals in Chhattisgarh, including BR Ambedkar Hospital in Raipur. A sharp rise in cases in Ahmedabad, Gujarat has created a severe scarcity of beds at the Covid-19 facilities. Taking a suo moto cognizance of the Covid-19 situation, the Gujarat High Court had on April 12 pulled up the state government over the problems being faced by citizens. Bodies are piling up at crematoriums and burial grounds in Madhya Pradesh as well. However, there seems to be an unexplained gap between the official daily death count released by the state government and the ground reality. India, gripped by the deadly second wave of the pandemic, reported 1,84,372 new coronavirus infections, hitting the highest daily tally once again. The new cases pushed the total cases to over 1.38 crore. Deaths rose by 1,027 to 1,72,085.