India’s Covid disaster: a crisis for the world

A catastrophe is unfolding in India as hospitals run out of oxygen, the Guardian's south Asia correspondent, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, reports from Delhi. And the country - the world's foremost vaccine producer - is now constrained in how much it can export while it deals with the disaster

When India emerged relatively unscathed from its first wave of Covid-19, there was a sense in the country that somehow it was an exception. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, had brought in a strict lockdown and it seemed to have worked: victory against the coronavirus was proclaimed.

The Guardian's south Asia correspondent, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, tells Anushka Asthana that the situation now couldn't be further from a victory against the virus. With a second wave spreading out of control across India, its healthcare system is unable to cope. Shortages of staff, beds and oxygen are compounding the catastrophe.