India on Friday fought a record increase in COVID-19 cases when hospitals ran out of oxygen and beds, while politicians held election rallies and hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees attended a week-long, outrageous festival. health officials.
A second massive wave of infections, only in total after the United States, forced authorities to restrict the movement of people to Mumbai, New Delhi and other cities amid growing calls to deploy vaccination more quickly.
The 217,353 new cases reported by the health ministry on Friday were the eighth record daily increase in the last nine days and brought the total number of cases to almost 14.3 million.
The United States has reported more than 31 million infections.
Deaths in India rose 1,185 in the last 24 hours, the biggest one-day rise in seven months, to a total of 174,308.
Experts have expressed concern about the spread of more contagious variants of the disease, especially the widespread participation in religious festivals and political rallies. A Lancet study this month estimated that daily deaths in India could double in June.
Hundreds of thousands of Hindu ascetics and devotees gathered on the banks of the Ganges, east of northern Uttarakhand, after a mass bath during a religious holiday on Wednesday, hoping to wash away their sins. . Hundreds have tested positive.
In the capital Delhi, cases reached the record figure of 16,699 overnight.
“It seems that more young people have serious illnesses,” said Giridhara Babu, a professor of epidemiology at the Institute of Public Health of India.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has again accused a “casual approach” to the unprecedented increase in cases, even though his colleagues in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party were still addressing election rallies in the which was attended by tens of thousands with little evidence of masks or social distancing.
Interior Minister Amit Shah, whose department oversees the blockade and other COVID rules, put on a show about a vehicle uncovered across a crowded street seeking votes in the state of West Bengal.
Thousands of farmers protesting in the capital against new agricultural laws for months have vowed to continue their settlements throughout the day. Read more
“The speed with which the virus is spreading in our region (South Asia) is really frightening,” said Udaya Regmi of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
VACCINE PROGRAM
The government said it would supply approximately 17,000 tonnes of oxygen to a dozen states where the virus is on the rise, including western Maharashtra and Delhi.
Remdesivir antiviral drug supplies are also intensifying after reports of widespread shortages. Read more
So far India has injected 117 million doses of vaccine, the highest in the world after the United States and China, but it only covers a small fraction of its 1.35 billion people.
Vaccinations peaked at 4.5 million doses on April 5, but have since averaged about 3 million a day, according to government data, amid complaints about a shortage of states. Read more
India has gone from being a mass exporter of vaccines to an importer as it previously rejected foreign drug manufacturers like Pfizer (PFE.N). It will import the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia starting this month to cover up to 125 million people. Read more
India on Thursday also approved the Haffkine Institute in Maharashtra to start producing its own-produced COVAXIN shot from Bharat Biotech, and said its production capacity would rise to about 100 million doses in September.
The country currently administers the COVAXIN and AstraZeneca (AZN.L) vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and branded Covishield.
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