The Briefing Room

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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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David Aaronovitch presents in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.

David Aaronovitch and a panel of experts and insiders present in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.

David Aaronovitch and a panel of experts and insiders present in-depth explainers on big issues in the news

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The Briefing Room: India's Covid Catastrophe

India's Covid Catastrophe

BBC Radio 4 - The Briefing Room, India's Covid Catastrophe

India was said to have “defeated Covid”. Now thousands are dying daily. What went wrong?

Only two months ago India had “defeated Covid”, it was said. Now thousands are dying every day and the health care system is collapsing. What went wrong?

In February India's governing party, the BJP, congratulated itself and its “visionary” leader, the prime minister, Narendra Modi,, for “defeating Covid.” Two months on India is in the midst of what one historian has termed “the gravest crisis the nation has faced since Partition” in 1947. Hundreds of thousands of new infections are reported every day and thousands of deaths. The peak may come in a few weeks. Meanwhile the country is short of hospital beds, oxygen and even wood for the funeral pyres. So what’s gone wrong? And what does India’s plight tell the rest of the world about the trajectory of the pandemic and when it might finally end?

Producers: Tim Mansel, Kirsteen Knight, Paul Moss
Studio Engineer: James Beard
Editor: Jasper Corbett

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