NEW DELHI (AP) – India on Wednesday reported a record daily increase in new coronavirus cases for the second time in four days, while New Delhi, Mumbai and dozens of other cities announced they were imposing curfews for try to curb the growing infections.
The increase of 115,736 cases of coronavirus reported in the last 24 hours exceeds the 103,844 infections reported on Sunday. The death toll has risen by 630 in the last 24 hours, the highest since November, bringing the total death toll in the country to 166,177 since the pandemic began.
So far, the federal government has refused to impose a national closure to contain the latest increase, but has called on states to decide to impose local restrictions.
“The pandemic is not over and there is no room for complacency,” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Twitter. He urged people to get vaccinated.
India now has a seven-day average of more than 78,000 cases a day and has reported 12.8 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, the highest after the United States and Brazil.
Although 85 million Indians have received at least one coronavirus vaccine, only 11 million of them have received both.
Due to an increase in infections, India has delayed exports of large quantities of vaccines. So far it has sent 64.5 million doses.
Experts say the increase, which is worse than last year’s peak in mid-September, is due in part to growing disregard for social distancing and the use of masks in public spaces.
While health officials continue to warn about rallies in public places, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party leaders continue to hold rallies rallies in various states where local elections are underway.
While on the campaign track Tuesday in the state of West Bengal, Modi was seen waving maskless supporters from his car.
His government has also allowed a huge one-month Hindu festival that attracts tens of thousands of devotees daily on the banks of the Ganges River in northern Uttarakhand state.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
– North Korea has continued to demand a perfect record to prevent coronavirus in its latest report to the World Health Organization. At the start of the pandemic, North Korea described its efforts to prevent the virus as a “matter of national existence.” It closed borders, banned tourists and expelled diplomats. The country still severely limits cross-border traffic and has quarantined tens of thousands of people who have shown symptoms. But he still says he has found no case of COVID-19, a widely dubious claim. In an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday, Edwin Salvador, a WHO representative in North Korea, said the north has reported that it tested 23,121 people to detect the coronavirus from the start of the pandemic until the ‘April 1 and that all results were negative. Salvador said the North said 732 people were tested between March 26 and April 1. WHO officials say the North no longer provides the UN agency with the number of people in quarantine with suspected symptoms.
– South Korea has reported 668 new cases of coronavirus, its highest daily jump in nearly three months, as concerns about another rise and a slow deployment of the vaccine grow. The numbers released Wednesday by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency raised the number of national cases to 106,898, including 1,756 deaths. Most of the new cases occurred in the Seoul area and other major cities. Earlier, officials insisted that it was possible to take a wait-and-see approach to the launch of vaccines in South Korea, as the nation’s outbreak was not as severe as those in America and Europe. Now, they say they are studying all possible measures to avoid the shortage, and it remains to be seen whether they would consider slowing down exports of AstraZeneca shots produced by local firm SK Bioscience.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is facing criticism over the implementation of vaccines that has delayed the timetable, as his country has struggled to get the promised doses of vaccine from Europe. He said more than 3 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine have not yet arrived in Australia, but that it should not be taken while criticizing the European Union. “It simply came to our notice then. This is not a dispute. It is not a conflict. It is not an argument. It’s not a shock. It’s just a simple fact. And I simply explain to the Australian public that supply problems are what limit and have restricted, especially in recent months, the global deployment of the vaccine, “Morrison told reporters in Canberra. He said he will write back to the Union. European Commission and AstraZeneca to ask them to send the full order of vaccine doses.Morrison said some of the doses will be sent to help neighboring Papua New Guinea deal with the virus outbreak.In March, Europe stopped some 250,000 vaccines going to Australia due to concerns about supply shortages in Europe.
– Nepal resumed vaccines against COVID-19 on Wednesday with vaccines given by China. The Himalayan nation had begun its vaccination campaign in January with AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured by India’s Serum Institute, but had to suspend it after India cut off supply. China donated 800,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine that was made last month. India gave away a million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the first time and Nepal bought 2 million more from the company. However, only one million was supplied and the company delayed delivery of the other half.