Despite a Year’s Prep, Why Are We Facing a 2nd COVID Crisis?

What led to such a crippling crisis even after a year of the public healthcare system fighting the virus? Tune in.

India recorded yet another biggest daily spike of 2.95 lakh new cases and 2,093 deaths in a single day over 20th April.

(Photo: The Quint)

India recorded yet another biggest daily spike of 2.95 lakh new cases in a single day over 21 April, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a virtual address a day before, taking stock of the crisis that has come with the second wave of coronavirus.

In his speech, PM Modi spoke of measures to assure availability of oxygen to meet the increasing demands in hospitals. He also talked about Phase 3 of India’s vaccination strategy, which will not only open up vaccines to all citizens above 18 years of age from 1 May, but also have vaccines available in the open market as well.

While he advised people to exercise caution and adhere to pandemic protocols to avoid lockdowns, he urged states to consider lockdowns as only the last resort.

But at a time when the second wave appears to be tearing apart our health infrastructure there's a lot to address such as...what led to such a crippling crisis even after a year of the public healthcare system fighting the virus?

With less than 10 percent of the population being vaccinated with one dose, are we on the right track with our vaccination process? And finally, with most of the states imposing some amount of restrictions on movement, will migrant workers be impacted yet again? We speak to Anjela Taneja, Inequality Campaign Lead at Oxfam India. Tune in.