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

As India recorded yet another biggest daily spike of 2.95 lakh new cases and 2,093 deaths in a single day over 20th April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a virtual address 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? Host and Producer: Shorbori Purkayastha Guests: Anjela Taneja, Inequality Campaign Lead at Oxfam India Editor: Shelly Walia Music: Big Bang Fuzz Listen to The Big Story podcast on: Apple: https://apple.co/2AYdLIl Saavn: http://bit.ly/2oix78C Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/2ntMV7S Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IyLAUQ Deezer: http://bit.ly/2Vrf5Ng Castbox: http://bit.ly/2VqZ9ur Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices