this is the deadly news live from perth in india as inoculation drive crumbles long queues for a vaccine that doesn't count several states run out and does its country is battling a record breaking spiking 19 infections and deaths also coming up at least $45.00 players did and many more critically injured after a stampede at a jewish festival described the 1st big religious gathering to be held since the government lifted some coronavirus districts.

i'm anthony howard welcome to the program india has set a daily global record of new coronavirus cases every day for more than a week now with an average of nearly 350000 infections that the deaths of nearly tripled in the past 3 weeks but most experts are convinced the numbers are still being under reported international relief if it has been stepped up but many indians still struggling to find medical supplies including oxygen and the white for vaccines continues. in the southwest indian state of carolina they wait. wait for a vaccine that doesn't come. stuff that they send to

a ready. but they have nothing to give. them so for now i would get about the doctors in. these records nation but there is no votes in with those. it's a similar problem across india with vaccination centers forced to close just as the government says all adults are allowed to get a jab. we don't have vaccines right now we'll let you know as soon as we get them up with. the hunt for oxygen also continues across the country refilling centers like this one overwhelmed. i've been waiting for hours for my cylinder with oxygen supplies make up some of the aid that being delivered to india from across the world. this international relief effort

has become a major mission. united states delivering supplies worth more than $100000000.00 in the coming days to provide urgent relief to our partners in india. but there's also frustration india is densely populated and yet mass gatherings including fist state elections in west bengal have been allowed to go ahead. people have been gathering a lot there's been a lot of gathering in terms of people going out to the markets. there have been some rallies going on and people have been going to different festivals. you know for all health workers across india the situation has become a nightmare it's reached a point where crisis is a very mild word for it. but the battle to keep this country breathing must go on if you don't have anything. on joining me now is our delhi bureau chief

amrita cina another day and then another record increase in infections mean this crisis will seemingly continue for some time yet and rita how are people coping and any guess it was another a bad day for india as the number of infections new infections rose by another record people obviously i extreme be moderate hospitals are under great pressure and you're running short of supplies oxygen is then his hospital beds the prime minister today had a meeting with this council of ministers and the now board in the ami and you had the i mean india's often used in disaster situations of they have great experience and they have a big reputation so big now being asked to set up field hospitals set up isolation wards and quarantine still rooms but at you know but the situation is really grim another mike at the grim reality is it's not just essential supplies like oxygen

which are running not but also space in commission grounds and burial sites the number of dead being taken there is simply to latch yeah everything is in short supply we hear health officials are opening up vaccine availability to every adult from saturday but what is that really made of the time we're also hearing about chronic vaccine shortages. it is huge disappointment especially among those between 18 and 44 who'd been hoping that their chance had not come because from tomorrow illusion but to be vaccinated and then it turns out that this simply not enough maxine many of the states it's going to going to delay and postpone the start of the expansion of this vaccination drive because they've been out of supplies because some of the supplies are actually given to them by the central government and some of the supplies they have to source themselves this is of course also a big setback in the government's strategy because this is all vaccination as a keep going in their aid to bring down the numbers of people who are infected by

breaking the chain of transmission as the crisis continues to deepen how can you sum up the public sentiment toward prime minister narendra modi's government at this month and in we've been seeing in our report is such a sense of desperation and anguish and despair at the moment and obviously some of this is journey into anger people are asking themselves and why didn't the government anticipate a 2nd senator why didn't the government actually listen to some of its own task force members who were seen back in november that the media. didn't surprise might be running up and we should prepare for that and be buzzing why would these big religious gatherings allow that the good media we know today that 9100000 people attended that religious festival over 4 weeks then election rallies that we saw in our report which politicians then been gloated when they had huge turnouts so there is a fair bit of anger but the bottom line is at the moment actually people are still

focused on getting the essential supplies they need to keep alive and keep their loved ones and i know everything else going great there now folks and just getting to the next day and staying the night to cima bureau chief in delhi thank you so much. when you double the tyson of the crown of arson india has been partly blamed for the rapid rapid increase in cases it's said to be both more infectious and deadly than earlier variants let's take a look now at what exactly we know so far about the west indian state of maharashtra is where the b. 1617 variant of the corona virus was 1st recorded in december 2020 the strain has 2 mutations on a spike protein that's the bit of the virus that gets into our body cells both genetic mutations of cropped up before around the world in other strains of the current virus and when they did they willing to the virus passing between people

more easily they were also linked to the virus being better able to get past the body's defenses briefly the 1st to make a concrete give across india more of a theory more for the theme of the thing that what might be happening is that something that it was the sort of between people is very rapidly moving through the population of people who are yet to contract infection and therefore pretty often. but how quickly does this new type spread to get a handle on mad researches need to be able to see when people have it and when they die from it which means sequencing the viruses genes that research has been extremely limited so far in india out of millions of cases in this new wave only around a 1000 sequences have been published meanwhile scientists across the world are working to find out how deadly b. 1617 is as the number of people dying continues to rise there on says can't come

quickly enough. well joining us now from london is dick de good of sonnie she's a senior lecturer at the london school of medicine in dentistry and i'm at the daimyo i just miss going to sunny thanks for coming on we're seeing record after record in the past week of reported infections in india how do we explain this particular development. i think can be explained to a combination of factors it's very clear that rises exponentially rises have been happening for 6 weeks now although it's been picked up by the media now because of the devastating situation we're seeing. it's been following this trajectory which has been quite predictable for 6 weeks and no action has been taken to cover that and i think that's a key reason this is what we're seeing is a mitigated spread spread which has not been caused by don't downs or substantive descriptions i think the danger is also probably an important fact this is a vein that seems to have increasing frequency quite rapidly in at least some parts

of the net maharashtrian best i'd call it and it seems there is in frequency even against a background of the so-called u.k. baby and so b. 117 with a very small number of sequences however it's very hard to make clear conclusions about this but i think there are beyond what he said it could be more transmissible and potentially more likely didn't escape immunity as well and until we have more studies around this it's quite hard to see but the connection of the surge with this increase in this particular breed frequency is quite concerning. you know the transmission of the frequency of talk of tell us more about this still relatively new variant which appears to vary as you say significantly more infections what's going on. so this particular dating has you know 2 mutations that we are concerned about one of them has been associated with increased replication of the via this increase infectiousness of the virus and the other one has is one that is common in

position with the so-called monogamous and so called south africa begins and associated with possible escape from immune responses and vaccines of course this is what we know about these new patients individually the border to what this means for this particular obedient in the real world is not to you right now because we don't have details of this. within hearing for more than a year now that social distancing and washing hands is one of the best ways to prevent the corona virus from spreading has there being too little of that in the. so i think we need to accept the predominant mode of transmission of this crisis aerosol transmission and there has been widespread mosque use in india in terms of social distancing i don't think so until recently investing all the way election rallies with thousands of people attending we've heard about religious festivals again with thousands hundreds of thousands of people attending and there's been many very little focus on mitigation of strength despite seeing the exponential rise and very sad to say that even now despite almost all of india being an

exponential growth phase of the back to make there are knock downs imputes imposing by the few places most other places have sort of nighttime curfew is and we can give you is that don't seem to be making much of a difference and rather than take to see just the end of 9 am i didn't see break the government seems to be privatizing politics of light and it doesn't seem to be taking any action at this point in time which is unthinkable given what's happening we need to remember that the debts we're seeing now are result of cases 3 weeks ago which means that unfortunately debts will continue to rise in the situation terms of hospital shortages oxygen shortages look at worst and there's no sign of seeing the peak of cases yet and that the peak of deaths would only be it about a month after the peak of cases so unless we stop this now we're looking at tens of thousands of deaths ahead of. the many thanks for your time or in these coronavirus health emergency mosques another medical crisis that's been

bubbling away hidden from view from the last year itself that being the impact on mental health and it's people are paid involved downs in the specter of death is and illness is taking a toll across all age groups in all settings who have been and rural but with a sizable population of young people the impact is proving especially hard on them . a little bit of india in berlin this hindu temple is in the middle of the german capital the temple is still not. breakdowns feel anxiety these other words 29 year old uses when asked about how she's coping with the 2nd week of school with 90. water parents are called positive. and help out the has been in the hospital for days personally for me it's been an emotional me hams in the 2nd wave my dad became a victim and a very serious one and it just made me realise how crazy things are at them. around an online mental health platform mind. which connects people to terrorists.

and the statistics are enough to tell her that she is not alone. about feelings id depression and grief that many are already experiencing she says a lot of young people who may end up suffering with p.t.s.d. post-traumatic stress disorder last year there were about 50 to 60 terribly that were coming in in one day and right now from the last 3 to 4 weeks at least that has started to 50 already the 2nd wave has been catastrophic images of people gasping for breath and collapsing in front of hospitals where no beds or oxygen are available have a back to the mental wellbeing of many some experts are convinced this we've has triggered a mental health epidemic of its own. terrible new us and says many young people who come to her feel hopeless and anxious over an uncertain future with all those

collectively going through a traumatic experience and now when. i was difficult. she was in ads that being constantly connected with the world online and accessing new information while helpful is also impacting the country's youth. by the sec in. part because they make a majority and of these very major underling very distressing in regions. people less state and begging and pleading families and it's obvious and that's why i don't think it's an experience that any of us could ever recover from yes we need help as people come out on this yes he offered more. help regards their.