India reels from a new wave of Covid-19

India is paying for its imprudence, reeling from an alarming second wave of Covid-19 that threatens to overwhelm a healthcare system yet to recover from a gruelling year. From around 11,000 new infections daily in February, the country recorded more than 126,265 new cases on Wednesday. The virus is spreading at ferocious speed: it took just six weeks for daily new infections to surge by a magnitude that took three months last year. “The trajectory is very scary right now,” virologist Shahid Jameel, of Ashoka University, told me. “This kind of surge is going to be catastrophic.” Until this week, India had few restrictions on commercial, social or public activity, and many Indians saw little cause for worry. But doctors on the front lines are now sounding the alarm.