The poor, the rich: In a sick India, all are on their own

NEW DELHI (AP) — For the family of the retired diplomat, the terror struck as they tried desperately to get him past the entrance doors of a private hospital.

One family in a nation of 1.3 billion. One case of COVID-19 in a country facing an unparalleled surge, with more than 200,000 people testing positive every day.

But when the pandemic exploded here in early April, the Amrohis found themselves struggling to keep one relative alive as the medical system neared collapse and the government was left unprepared.

It’s the way now across India: Families scour cities for coronavirus tests, medicine, ambulances, oxygen and hospital beds. When none of that works, some have to deal with loved ones zippered into body bags.

The desperation comes in waves. New Delhi was hit at the start of April, with the worst coming near the end of the month. The southern city of Bengaluru was hit about two weeks later. The surge is at its peak now in many small towns, and just reaching others.

But when a pandemic wave hits, everyone is on their own. The poor. The rich. The well-connected bureaucrats who hold immense sway here, and the people who clean the sewers. Wealthy businessmen fight for hospital beds, and powerful government officials send tweets begging for oxygen. Middle-class families scrounge wood for funeral pyres, and where there’s no wood, families have dumped their relatives’ bodies into the Ganges River. Hundreds of bloated corpses have been found.

The rich and well-connected still have money and contacts to smooth the search for ICU beds and oxygen tanks. But rich and poor alike have been left gasping for breath outside overflowing hospitals.

“This has now become normal,” said Abhimanyu Chakravorty, 34, whose extended New Delhi family set up a makeshift hospital for his...