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The city of Pune, India, currently has more than 110,000 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, and only 28 unused ventilators as of Monday night.
Pune is the country's hardest-hit city, but the crisis follows a national trend across India as coronavirus cases rise and hospitals are becoming increasingly overwhelmed. Over the past week, India has averaged more than 143,000 cases per day, and deaths have now surpassed 170,000, the Associated Press reported.
India's western Maharashtra state, where Pune and the city of Mumbai are located, has recorded nearly half of those new infections in the past week. The situation is becoming so overwhelmed that some vaccination centers are beginning to turn people away to due increased shortages.
The country is now second only to the United States in overall infections, with more than 13.6 million cases recorded since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below:
When infections began plummeting in India in September, many concluded the worst had passed. Masks and social distancing were abandoned, while the government gave mixed signals about the level of risk. When cases began rising again in February, authorities were left scrambling.
"Nobody took a long-term view of the pandemic," said Dr. Vineeta Bal, who studies immune systems at the city's Indian Institute of Science Education and Research.
India moved Tuesday to expand the number of vaccines available, by authorizing the use of all coronavirus shots that have been given an emergency nod by the World Health Organization or regulators in the United States, Europe, Britain or Japan. Indian regulators also OK'd Russia's Sputnik V for emergency use.
Worries about vaccine supplies have led to criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, which has exported 64.5 million doses to other nations. Rahul Gandhi, the face of the main opposition Congress party, asked Modi in a letter whether the government's export strategy was "an effort to garner publicity at the cost of our own citizens."
Now, India has reversed course. Last month, COVAX said shipments of up to 90 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines were delayed because the Serum Institute of India decided to prioritize domestic needs.
The institute, which is based in Pune and is the world's largest vaccine maker, told The Associated Press earlier this month that it could restart exports of the vaccine by June — if new coronavirus infections subside. But a continued surge could result in more delays.
And experts warn that India could be looking at just that.
They suspect the most likely cause behind the widespread surge is the presence of more infectious variants, including a new and potentially troublesome variant that was first detected in India itself.
Dozens of cities and towns have imposed partial restrictions and nighttime curfews to try to curb infections, but Modi has ruled out the possibility of another nationwide lockdown. He also rejected calls from states to offer vaccinations to younger people.
Experts, meanwhile, say the current limit of offering vaccines to those over 45 should be relaxed and that shots need to be targeted in areas experiencing surges.
"The burden of COVID-19 is being felt unevenly," said Krishna Udayakumar, founding director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center at Duke University. "And the response needs to be tailored to local needs."
