Regina man calls COVID situation in India a ‘nightmare’

The COVID-19 situation in India is critical right now, with skyrocketing new cases every day and a health-care system that can’t deal with the flood of patients — and people in Saskatchewan from India are watching with fear and frustration.

Nish Prasad has lived in Canada for 20 years but he still has family in India, including his parents.

“You can call it a nightmare. It’s a very scary situation,” said Prasad.

It’s not easy for Prasad to watch what’s happening in India but he watches the news every day.

“It gets to be so disturbing that it’s hard to sleep at night, once you watch the suffering of the people. There are young kids gasping for oxygen and the oxygen cylinders are not enough,” said Prasad.

A couple of members of his extended family have died of COVID and he said he’s heard about many friends’ relatives dying as well.

“The sad part is some of these family members are too young to be passing away, and some of the family members are the only bread-winner of the family so it makes it very tough. It’s a very sad situation,” explained Prasad.

Both of Prasad’s parents are vaccinated now, which he said is a relief. They’ve been making sure they stay at home unless it’s absolutely necessary.

One of Prasad’s close uncles was also fully vaccinated, but he ended up catching the virus. Prasad said he’s 90 years old.

“So had he not taken the vaccine, it would have been brutal for him,” Prasad said.

Prasad said the challenge in India is that the country is so populated, with about 1.4 billion people.

“You don’t have the resources appropriate enough to be matching a situation like this,” he said. “Nobody would have ever envisioned the situation would get so bad.”

He said we’re all fortunate to be living in Canada with the health-care system here. He explained in India, there are differing levels of quality at hospitals and the cost of health care has gone up during this surge in cases.

There’s currently a travel ban on passenger flights to Canada from India — a move by the federal government to stop more COVID from coming to Canada. Prasad said he respects the move, noting the government has to protect the people here.

“The negative part is if somebody has to travel to India on an emergency basis, they would be unable to do so,” said Prasad.

Many countries have sent aid to India and Canada is preparing to send help as well. Prasad said it’s a good gesture, especially considering India sent vaccine doses to Canada early on when they weren’t as widely available.

There is a large Indian population in Saskatchewan and so there are many people in the same boat at Prasad, watching what’s happening and fearing for their families.