COVID-19 Craze, India Deploys Former Military Medics

Illustration of handling COVID-19 patients. (Wikimedia Commons/Mstyslav Chernov)

JAKARTA - India's Ministry of Defense has announced plans to involve former military health workers, to help with the handling of COVID-19 in India, amid a record spike in new cases of infection and death in recent times.

Known, the Ministry of Health reported 4,092 deaths over the last 24 hours, making the total number of deaths to 242,362. New cases of infection rose by 403,738, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 22.3 million.

Meanwhile, the day before, India reported the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in a single day at 4,187. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that India will reach 1 million COVID-19 deaths by August.

"About 400 medics are expected to serve contracts for a maximum of 11 months, India's Defense Ministry said in a press release, reported Reuters on Monday, May 10. Added, a number of other military doctors were also deployed to assist with online consultations.

COVID-19 cases and deaths in India have reached a new record every two or three days. Deaths increased by more than 4,000 for the second day in a row on Sunday.

In response, many Indian states have imposed strict lockdowns over the past month while others have announced restrictions on public movement and closed cinemas, restaurants, pubs and shopping malls.

Pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi has increased, to announce a nationwide lockdown as happened during the first wave last year.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) called for a complete, planned, and previously announced lockdown, instead of sporadic curfews and restrictions imposed by the state for several days at a time.

"The IMA is astonished to see the extreme lethargy and inappropriate actions of the health ministry in combating the excruciating crisis born of the second wave of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic," in a statement.

When it comes to vaccination, India as the world's largest covid-19 vaccine producing country recently fully vaccinated more than 34.3 million people, or just 2.5 percent, of its 1.35 billion population as of Sunday, according to data from the government's Co-WIN portal.