As the entire world tries to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, India is seriously fallen behind. Currently, they have close to 24 million cases with over 250,000 deaths. Since the beginning of March, India’s cases have been on the rise and no one has been able to get that under control as we approach mid-May. 

India’s officials have spoken out saying that they underestimated the way that the disease was going to spread, they also talked about the influence the United State’s numbers had on their country. The United States cases have recently been declining due to the vaccines being given out; however, India’s government took this as an invitation to put their guard down against the virus. 

As the numbers rapidly increase every day, many individuals are trying their best to raise awareness by donating money through sites such as GoFundMe and reposting/sharing information about India’s battle with COVID on social media. 

“When I first heard about this, my initial reaction was just that I was in shock. I thought about how the United States was struggling really bad at one point in time and thinking about countries that don’t have the same resources is a scary thing,” Davika Singh spoke on this matter. She adds that she has seen a number of posts throughout Instagram and Twitter asking for donations and any help that they can get. 

Even though there has not been a direct cause of why the cases have been skyrocketing, it seems to be that social distancing and mask mandates are not prominent. India does have access to COVID tests, but vaccine supplies are finished and hospitals are running on little to no supplies, oxygen, and personnel which is why there are such a large number of deaths. 

“One way that India could have prevented this was by continuing to stay indoors and wear masks when going out. If matters continue to get worse, they should reach out to a different country in aid to prevent more deaths,.” Davika said, but also mentioned that each country has its own issues to worry about and everyone is in a similar situation. 

With this being said, the best advice that she could give was “Learning from others is essential throughout this crisis and we should not underestimate the harm the virus can cause.”