If you imagine viruses as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, that can help explain what happens when a coronavirus variant comes into contact with human cells.
Dr. Sumit Ray, critical care chief at a New Delhi hospital, is on the front lines of India's growing COVID-19 crisis. "As a system in different parts of the country, we have collapsed," he says.
Hospitals don't have enough oxygen for patients on ventilators. There are delivery bottlenecks. Families are sometimes told to get their own supplies. Health experts say it didn't have to be this way.
Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and his entourage at the gathering in the United Kingdom will attend meetings virtually after two members of the delegation reportedly tested positive.
In just the past week, India has seen its COVID-19 cases jump by 2,646,526 — a figure that, if it stood alone, would make India the 14th worst-hit nation in the world.
India's COVID-19 caseload plummeted to record lows in February. Now a startling spike is causing health systems — and possibly law and order — to break down. What went wrong?