Amitoj Singh’s grandmother, 94, could not breathe. COVID-19 had invaded her lungs, expelling air, and it was time for her to go to the hospital. But, in Paonta Sahib – a small town six hours from New Delhi – there was no bed to be had.

“She’s probably the most influential person (in town) as the wife of a High Court judge,” Singh said, “and even she couldn’t have a bed. We had to drive three hours away.

This trip took place in what Singh describes as a “dilapidated ambulance” with a faulty oxygen tank. When they arrived at Sarahan Hospital, they discovered a COVID-19 patient who had died there, outside, moments before.

The doctors “couldn’t even get him in. They tried to resuscitate him here, ”Singh told me by video call from the hospital parking lot three days later, as he waited for his grandmother to be released.

It’s dark in India, and Singh’s phone camera crosses the dark, empty parking lot of the small two-story hospital, then returns, sweeping a funnel-shaped strip of blue light before his face fills the screen.

As Singh and his family members stood there in the parking lot three days before, begging the hospital staff to admit his grandmother, “They were like, ‘Why are you here? She is 94 years old, ”he recalls. “We had to tell them, ‘Look, she’s a fighter. We know she will pass. They were like, ‘Don’t hold us accountable.’ ”

After his admission, Singh discovered that the place – which is a dedicated COVID-19 center – was short of supplies and staff. There are 25 small oxygen tanks, he said, but only nine regulators. The place does not administer any tests – no blood tests, no scans – and, he added, there are no ventilators. There are “a limited number of nurses” so “behaviors are neither monitored nor neutralized,” he said, adding that his grandmother kept removing the oxygen mask from her face. .

Stories like this are common in India right now. People are dying on their way to hospitals that are too full to take them anyway. Cemeteries and crematoriums cannot keep up with demand and bodies are piling up.

No family has been spared by the catastrophic second wave of COVID-19 in the country, which was fueled by the country’s weak infrastructure and exacerbated by a long-standing shortage of doctors and other health professionals, as well as a lack of medical supplies.

And despite India being the world’s largest vaccine producer and home to the world’s largest COVID-19 maker, the vaccine is largely unavailable in the country.

The United States government is responding to the crisis in India by airlifting much-needed supplies, including oxygen pallets, to the country. Many organizations – including faith-based organizations – are also mobilizing to offer help.

Despite these efforts, many remain concerned that India may not get the essential vaccines to stop the virus in its tracks. Health experts say vaccinations would play a crucial role in preventing the development of new strains of coronavirus in India – further hitting a country already reeling from the pandemic – before spreading across the world.

“What we’ve seen throughout this pandemic is when you see the rise of new variants – and there are new variants coming out of India – they never stay in the country of. where they originate, they are very quickly becoming global, ”Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the school of public health at Brown University, told ABC. “This is one of the many reasons we need to bring the pandemic under control elsewhere, because when these outbreaks occur, the variants of these places are also found in our country.”

Despite attempts to help the international community, Jha noted that things are likely to get worse in India. Referring to daily infection rates of over 350,000, Jha warned those numbers could rise to more than 500,000 new cases a day “if things don’t get under control quickly.”

Channi Anand, Associated Press

Faith groups offer help

Many international and American organizations raise funds and procure materials to send to India. While the work of faith-based organizations seems similar, their efforts are rooted in religious values, which sometimes seem to inspire particularly innovative approaches.

For example, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee has a unique initiative to get American and Israeli doctors to offer telemedicine support to Indian doctors and nurses in ICUs, according to Michael Geller, director of communications.

American and Israeli doctors will share their expertise with Indian doctors overwhelmed, weighing down particularly difficult cases, he said.

The efforts of the Joint Distribution Committee reflect a number of core Jewish values, including the idea of Areivut, interdependence or responsibility towards each other; tikun olam, global repair; and “the Talmudic concept that saving even one life is saving a whole world,” Geller said.

Leaders of other faith-based organizations offering aid to India have also emphasized that their work is not only aimed at benefiting members of their own religion.

Many mistakenly believe that sadaqah, charity, should go to Muslims only, said Manzoor Ghori, executive director of Indian Muslim Relief and Charities, “but“ we don’t make a difference when we help. I cannot ask you if you are a Muslim or a Christian. We distribute regardless of who they are. ”

Since the start of the pandemic, Ghori’s organization has given 325,000 meals to the needy in India and distributed PPE and oximeters. Now they are focusing their efforts on fundraising, opening a COVID-19 ward at a hospital in Hyderabad, and getting medical supplies – including oxygen concentrators – to Indians in need.

Khalsa Aid – a Sikh organization – is also focused on sourcing and shipping oxygen concentrators. Portable oxygen concentrators, in particular, can help people get to hospital without dying on the way, said Omar Singh, national director of the US branch of Khalsa Aid.

The organization is also looking for transformers to solve the voltage issues and is trying to train more medical staff in India on the use of ventilators.

“Our motto is a line of our scriptures which is: ‘Recognize the entire human race as one’. It is easy to draw boundaries and designations between nations, but this is a global pandemic. It could easily spread across the world and cause more devastation, ”said Omar Singh.

Indians are terrified – even indoors

Omar Singh’s comment underscores the urgency of vaccinating as many of the Indian population as possible. But, so far, the country has struggled with its vaccine rollout. Critics have blamed the government of current Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the problem, and some have also accused Western countries, including the United States, of hoarding vaccines.

Vaccine distribution should be “driven by need,” Jha told ABC. “Since the need in India is the greatest, it should probably take the lion’s share.”

Aditi Elhence, who currently lives in a suburb just outside New Delhi, said she does not plan to be able to get the COVID-19 vaccine until July at the earliest.

Elhence is afraid of getting sick before that. As she and her 3-year-old daughter – who had COVID-19 last fall but recovered quickly – stay indoors, the aid employed by her upper-class family goes to search for supplies. groceries and other supplies, risking exposure to the process as well as the household.

There is a sense of dread that hangs over the lives of all Indians, even indoors, Elhence said, mentioning a colleague who has not left her apartment in Mumbai but has contracted COVID-19 again. During a video call, the sick colleague said she was unsure how she got the virus. “She wonders if she got it on the way out to the balcony,” Elhence said, adding, “with the disease being airborne, you don’t feel safe anywhere.”

Indians live in “a constant state of fear and anxiety,” she said. “Everyone lives every day at the same time because you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow – you could collapse, fall and die.”

Elhence has lost several members of her extended family. Singh too.

And less than a day after being released from the COVID-19 center without a ventilator and not enough nurses – within 24 hours of the trip back to her home in Paonta Sahib – Amitoj Singh’s beloved grandmother is dead.