Covering the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic as it tore through Indian cities, towns and villages was overwhelming at times.
Patients died at home, in their cars on the way to hospital and outside emergency wards because there were no beds for them.
Some Indians said what made the devastation of April and May harder to accept was that they believed the worst of the pandemic was over in February, when the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths were far below today's.Election rallies went ahead, markets teemed with people and huge crowds of worshippers attended religious festivals. In much of the rest of the world, large gatherings were forbidden as governments fought to slow the spread of the virus.
Some relatives pleaded with me to diagnose their loved one, mistaking me for a doctor because I was wearing PPE gear. Others who saw my camera urged me to document the pain their family was suffering. Holy Family Hospital, another hospital in the Indian capital, where I documented a 27-hour workday shift of a junior doctor in early May, did not respond to a request for comment this week on its current situation.Mass cremations took place in crematorium parking lots to cope with the number of bodies, and the intense heat the pyres generated sometimes prevented me from getting close to take photographs and video.
At the emergency ward of Bijnor Government Hospital, four people with breathing difficulties died in front of me in less than an hour.
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