A series of new photographs showing the burning of mass funeral pyres and the tears of family members dressed in full personal protective equipment looking on illustrates the extent of India’s coronavirus turmoil.
The Associated Press news agency has published more than a dozen photos this past week, showing the cremation and burial of Covid-19 victims.
Several showed rows of mass funeral pyres ablaze in a New Delhi area that has been turned into a temporary crematorium, while other photos, from Guwahati, in Assam, showed men in protective equipment digging graves before lowering wrapped bodies into them.
The emotional toll of India’s struggle with the coronavirus was also poignantly captured in photographs of relatives of the deceased crying and consoling each other while dressed in full protective equipment, including masks and gloves.
India has become the second most Covid-affected country in the world – beaten only by the United States – with more than 17,300,000 cases and nearly 200,000 deaths.
Despite hosting production centers for two different Covid-19 vaccines, AstraZeneca and Covaxin, India has partially vaccinated just 8.6% of its population and fully vaccinated only 1.6%, leaving it a long way behind other major countries.
Several, including the United States, have pledged to provide aid to India as it struggles through the pandemic, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi called a “storm” that “has shaken the nation.”
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