COVID-19 cases
India cases set new global record; millions vote in 1 state
India set another global record in new virus cases Thursday, as millions of people in one state cast votes despite rising infections and the country geared up to open its vaccination rollout to all adults amid snags.
With 379,257 new infections, India now has reported more than 18.3 million cases, second only to the United States. The Health Ministry also reported 3,645 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 204,832. Experts believe both figures are an undercount, but it’s unclear by how much.
India has set a daily global record for seven of the past eight days, with a seven-day moving average of nearly 350,000 infections. Daily deaths have nearly tripled in the past three weeks, reflecting the intensity of the latest surge. And the country’s already teetering health system is under immense strain, prompting multiple allies to send help.
Also read: India grieves 200,000 dead with many more probably uncounted
A country of nearly 1.4 billion people, India had thought the worst was over when cases ebbed in September. But mass public gatherings such as political rallies and religious events that were allowed to continue, and relaxed attitudes on the risks fed by leaders touting victory over the virus led to what now has become a major humanitarian crisis, health experts say. New variants of the coronavirus have also partly led the surge.
Amid the crisis, voting for the eighth and final phase of the West Bengal state elections began Thursday, even as the devastating surge of infections continues to barrel across the country with a ferocious speed, filling crematoriums and graveyards.
More than 8 million people are eligible to vote in at least 11,860 polling stations across the state. Election Commission has said social distancing measures would be in place.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party have faced criticism over the last few weeks for holding huge election rallies in the state, which health experts suggest might have driven the surge there too. Other political parties also participated in rallies.
The state recorded more than 17,000 cases in the last 24 hours — its highest spike since the pandemic began.
Starting Wednesday, all Indians 18 and older were allowed to register on a government app for vaccinations, but social media were flooded with complaints the app had crashed due to high use, and once it was working again, no appointments were available.
The vaccinations are supposed to start Saturday, but India, one of the world’s biggest producers of vaccines, does not yet have enough doses for everyone. Even the ongoing effort to inoculate people above 45 is stuttering.
One state, Maharashtra, has already said it won’t be able to start on Saturday.
Since January, nearly 10% of Indians have received one jab, but only around 1.5% have received both required doses.
Also read: Murder case filed against India's Election Commission
On Thursday, India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla told reporters that the country is facing an “unprecedented” second surge with over 3 million active cases that have pushed the health system close to collapse, causing the acute shortages of oxygen and other hospital supplies.
Help is coming from overseas. “There’s been an outpouring of, lets say, assistance from various countries,” Shringla said, adding that over 40 nations have committed to send assistance.
The White House said the U.S. will send more than $100 million worth of items, including 1,000 oxygen cylinders, 15 million N95 masks and 1 million rapid diagnostic tests. They will begin arriving Thursday, just days after President Joe Biden promised to step up assistance. The U.S. and Britain have already sent a shipment of medical items.
France, Germany, Ireland and Australia have also promised help, and Russia sent two aircraft carrying oxygen generating equipment, Shringla said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has advised its citizens to leave India. An alert on the U.S. Embassy’s website warned that “access to all types of medical care is becoming severely limited in India due to the surge in COVID-19 cases.”
Also read: India bans all electoral victory rallies
7th phase of local elections underway in India's West Bengal amid COVID-19 spike
The seventh phase of local elections in India's eastern state of West Bengal is underway amid a huge spike in COVID-19 cases, officials said Monday.
The ongoing phase is being held in the shadow of spiraling COVID-19 cases. During the past 24 hours, 15,889 fresh COVID-19 cases and 57 related deaths were reported across the state.
The polling started from 7:00 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. (local time) amid tight security and adequate arrangements, according to officials.
In the ongoing phase, the voting is going on in 34 constituencies from five districts.
"Until 11:30 a.m. (local time) in today's phase, 37.72 percent of polling has been recorded," an official said. "Polling is going on peacefully and no major untoward incident has been reported so far."
Authorities have deployed 653 companies of paramilitary forces for the ongoing phase.
Special facilities including mandatory sanitization of the polling stations, thermal checking of voters at the entry point have been put in place.
Officials said in view of the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, the option of postal ballot facility has been extended to the electors who are COVID- 19 positive or suspect as certified by the competent authority and are in home or institutional quarantine along with those marked as persons with disabilities and above the age of 80 years.
Officials said people in large numbers were seen standing in queues from morning outside the polling stations.
"All the necessary facilities and security arrangements have been made to ensure free and fair polling during this phase. The Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) is being used along with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at all polling stations with a view to enhance the transparency of the election process," an election official said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to exercise their right to vote and follow the COVID-19 protocol.
Elections in the state would be completed in eight phases and the last phase is scheduled on April 29. The counting of votes will be carried out on May 2.
India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to unseat the local All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal. Both the parties have been engaged in a tough fight for the electoral battle in the state.
The elections are being held at a time when India is witnessing a record increase in daily COVID-19 cases.
On Monday the country reported the world's biggest-ever daily surge with 352,991 new cases and 2,812 deaths.
Global Covid-19 cases top 146 million
More than 146 people have been found infected with Covid-19 globally with 3.09 million fatalities on Sunday, according to the Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
The total case count reached at 146, 091,986 while the death toll from the virus climbed to 3,096, 579 as of Sunday.
The US has now surpassed 32 million confirmed cases of Covid-19, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
Coronavirus cases nationwide reached 32,044,976 on Sunday. Covid-19 related deaths now total more than 571,922.
Brazil registered 3,076 more Covid-19-related deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing its death toll to 389,492, the country's Ministry of Health reported on Saturday.
According to the ministry, another 71,137 new cases were registered, bringing the country's caseload to 14,308,215.
Brazil is currently ranked second in the world in the number of deaths from Covid-19, surpassed only by the United States, and third in the world in the number of cases, behind the United States and India.
Also read: Covid situation in Bangladesh unlikely to improve before June: Experts
India has logged 16,610,481 cases while the death toll from the virus mounted to 189, 544.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh recorded 83 more Covid-related deaths in 24 hours until Saturday morning, raising the total fatalities to 10,952.
Bangladesh’s coronavirus fatalities crossed 10,000 on April 15 and the death tally reached near 11,000 within 10 days as the country finds it hard to deal with the pandemic.
With the latest figure, the mortality rate rose to 1.48 percent from Friday’s 1.47 percent, the Directorate General of Health Services said in a handout.
Also read: India records world's highest single-day spike in Covid cases
Besides, 2,697 new cases were detected during the period after examining 20,571 samples.
Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of that month.
With the news cases, the total caseload reached 742,400 while the total number of recoveries is 653,151, including 5477 in the last 24 hours.
The surge in Covid infections prompted the government to go for a lockdown from early April but it turned out to be lax and loose. From April 11, the government imposed a ‘stricter lockdown’ and later extended it up to April 28.
On Friday, the government allowed shopping malls to reopen from April 25.
Vaccination campaign
Launched on February 7, a vaccination drive is underway across Bangladesh with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
Bangladesh signed an agreement with the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd for 30 million doses of the vaccine. But a record number of cases in India has made the delivery of the vaccine doses uncertain.
On Thursday, Foreign Minister AK Momen assured people that there will be adequate doses of the vaccine.
So far, 5,778,686 people have received the first dose and 1,967,975 have got their second jab, according to official figures.
Global Covid-19 cases cross 144 million
The global Covid-19 caseload has crossed the grim milestone of 144 million as the world is grappling to contain the second outbreak of Covid-19 even with mass inoculations underway.
Deaths from the virus have also topped three million, according to Johns Hopkins University.
To be specific, the total caseload reached 144,757,145 while the fatalities climbed to 3,072,309 on Friday morning.
Also read: How long does protection from COVID-19 vaccines last?
The US is the world's worst-hit country -- the North American nation has registered 31,929,599 cases and 570,345 deaths as of Friday morning.
In Brazil, the Covid-19 death toll mounted to 383,502 and infections topped 14,167,973, as per the latest data.
A new wave of infections has been confronting the South American country, leading to a rise in hospitalisations, deaths and the collapse of a large part of the Brazilian public healthcare system.
Neighbouring country India recorded the world's second highest number of Covid-19 cases, at 16,263,695 to date. The country has so far witnessed 186,095 deaths, listing it among the worst-affected countries in the world.
Also read: Covid situation in Bangladesh unlikely to improve before June: Experts
Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh recorded 98 coronavirus-related deaths in 24 hours till Thursday as the deadly second wave of the virus overwhelms hospitals and pushes the health sector to its limits.
The virus also infected 4,014 others during the period, the Directorate General of Health Services said in a handout.
Coronavirus deaths now stand at 10,781 with a mortality rate of 1.46 percent, according to DGHS. The daily infection rate fell to 14.63 percent from Wednesday’s 15.07 percent.
On Monday, the country broke all the previous records of Covid-19 deaths registering 112 fatalities. It saw over 100 deaths on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of that month.
Health authorities have so far confirmed 736,074 cases. Among them, 642,449 people - 87.28 percent of all patients – have recovered.
Also read: India records world's highest single-day spike in Covid cases
Lockdown: Pvt cars rise on Dhaka roads
The movement of private vehicles has increased significantly over the last few days even with the government extending the ongoing lockdown for another week to counter the rising Covid-19 cases.
People who have obtained their movement passes are allowed to commute in their vehicles while those in essential services are exempted from the restrictions, as per the directives of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
On Thursday, rickshaws, which provide last-mile connectivity to the residents, were, however, seen plying on many roads in the capital, including Mirpur Road, Banani and Mohakhali areas.
The garment workers have been allowed to join their workplaces as the government has kept the export-oriented industries open during the lockdown.
Shops and shopping malls, however, remained closed as the government has enforced a stricter lockdown to stem the spread of Covid-19 cases.
Police and RAB members were seen monitoring the movement of vehicles and people after setting up check-posts in different areas of the capital.
Asaduzzaman, a traffic Inspector, said, “The movement of private vehicles and rickshaws have increased in the last few days but we are allowing only those who movement passes to commute."
"Those in emergency services are allowed to move freely," he added.
Also read:Bangladesh put under complete lockdown amid Covid spike
A surge in coronavirus cases prompted the government to go for an eight-day complete lockdown from April 14. The cabinet division issued a notification in this regard on April 12.
Later, following the shattering situation of Covid-19 cases, the government extended the ongoing lockdown by another week from April 22 in an effort to bring the situation under control.
A circular was issued on April 20 extending the ongoing strict lockdown for another week from April 22, aiming to curb the transmission of Covid-19.
The operations of international special flights and banking activities will continue while other restrictions will remain in force till 28 April midnight.
"The lockdown will remain in force from April 22 to 28 with the same restrictions imposed in the previous week. It’ll be a tougher one,” State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain said on April 19.
Also read:Fresh lockdown from Apr 22: State Minister
As coronavirus cases continued to rise alarmingly since mid-March, the government imposed an apparently loose nationwide lockdown for one week from April 5 as part of its move to contain its spread. Later a stricter lockdown was declared from April 14 to 21.
Covid-19 situation
Bangladesh registered 95 more Covid-related deaths in 24 hours till Wednesday that pushed up the total number of fatalities to 10,683.
Besides, 4,280 people were found infected during the period after testing of 28,408 samples, the Directorate General of Health Services said in a handout.
On April 19, the country broke all the previous records of Covid-19 deaths registering 112 fatalities.
Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of that month.
Health authorities have so far confirmed 732,060 cases. Among them, 635,183 people -- 86.77 percent of all patients -- have recovered.
Indian capital gasps for oxygen
Believe it or not, rising Covid-19 cases have left the Indian capital's medical infrastructure on the brink of collapse. Several hospitals in the city are left with just a few hours of oxygen, the Chief Minister of Delhi said on Tuesday, prompting the High Court to slam the federal government for not banning the industrial use of the life-supporting gas immediately.
On Tuesday, India reported as many as 259,170 Covid-19 cases and 1,761 fatalities in the past 24 hours, the highest daily death toll since the pandemic broke out over a year ago. The national capital alone reported over 30,000 new Covid cases and some 250 deaths.
Also read: India's capital to lock down as nation's virus cases top 15M
"Serious oxygen crisis persists in Delhi. I again urge the Centre (federal government) to urgently provide oxygen to Delhi. Some hospitals are left with just a few hours of oxygen," Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, after a number of leading private hospitals claimed that their oxygen supplies will last for a maximum of 8-12 hours.
Local TV channels also beamed footage of hundreds of Delhi residents queuing up in hospitals, begging for beds for their loved ones with Covid-19 positive reports.
Also read: India records over 260,000 daily COVID-19 cases, tally at 14,788,109
Taking cognizance of the media reports and Kejriwal's tweets, the Delhi High Court also came down heavily on the federal government and questioned its decision to implement a ban on the industrial use of oxygen for Covid patients only from April 22. "Economic interests can't override human lives. Else we are heading for a disaster," the court said.
"Out of 130 crore, there are less than two crore official cases. Even if it's five times, that means only 10 crore cases. We should protect the remaining people. At this rate, we might lose one crore people. We should act fast. We are not here to run the government but you have to be sensitive to the situation," a two-judge bench said.
Also read: Covid-19: Global cases near 142 million, deaths top 3 million
UNB had earlier reported that the Covid-19 pandemic has suddenly turned India into a Covid vaccine importer from a mass exporter. And the government has turned to foreign vaccine producers for inoculating the citizens. The Sputnik vaccine from Russia, officials had said, would arrive next month.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the world's largest Covid inoculation programme on January 16. Two 'Made in India' jabs, one developed by the Serum Institute in collaboration with AstraZeneca, and the other by Bharat Biotech, are being given.
Covid-19: Global cases near 142 million, deaths top 3 million
The Covid-19 situation is worsening around the world with each passing day, despite mass vaccinations.
While the global death toll from the virus has already topped three million, the total
case count is fast nearing the grim milestone of 142 million, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
To be specific, the total caseload reached 141,819,360 while the fatalities climbed to 3,027,353 on Tuesday morning.
The US has logged 31,737,347 cases and 567,960 deaths to date.
Also read: COVID-19 infections approaching highest rates ever, WHO warns
The US remains the world’s worst-hit country in terms of cases and deaths respectively. However, deaths in the US are down to about 700 per day on an average, plummeting from a mid-January peak of about 3,400, reports AP.
Brazil's Covid-19 death toll on Monday reached 374,682 while the total number of cases in the South American country mounted to 13,973,695, as per the university data.
In neighbouring India, the total Covid-19 case count has surpassed 15 million.
The national tally of the country stands at 15,061,919 and the death toll at 178,769 as of Tuesday morning, according to official figures released by the government.
Also read: India records over 260,000 daily COVID-19 cases, tally at 14,788,109
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh again broke all previous records of Covid-19 deaths, registering 112 fatalities in 24 hours till Monday morning.
The country saw over 100 deaths for the fourth consecutive day.
The latest fatalities pushed up the death tally to 10,497 with a mortality rate of 1.45 percent, according to a handout from the Directorate General of Health Services.
Besides, 4,271 new cases were reported during the period after testing 24,152 samples. The infection rate was 17.68 percent, down from 19.06 percent on Sunday.
Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8, 2020, and the first death on March 18 that year.
The health authorities have so far confirmed 723,221 cases. Among them, 621,300 people -- 85.91 percent of all patients -- have recovered.
The virus claimed 568 lives in January this year, 281 in February and 638 in March.
The government has decided to extend the ongoing lockdown by another week from April 22.
Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh reports record 112 daily deaths
Vaccination drive
Bangladesh inked an agreement with the Serum Institute of India for acquiring 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
A countrywide inoculation drive was launched on February 7.
So far, 57,14,090 people have received the first dose of the vaccine and 13,66,609 have got their second jab, according to official figures.
There are growing calls for speeding up the vaccination programme as hospitals are flooded with patients.
Worldwide COVID-19 death toll tops a staggering 3 million
The global death toll from the coronavirus topped a staggering 3 million people Saturday amid repeated setbacks in the worldwide vaccination campaign and a deepening crisis in places such as Brazil, India and France.
The number of lives lost, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of Kyiv, Ukraine; Caracas, Venezuela; or metropolitan Lisbon, Portugal. It is bigger than Chicago (2.7 million) and equivalent to Philadelphia and Dallas combined.
And the true number is believed to be significantly higher because of possible government concealment and the many cases overlooked in the early stages of the outbreak that began in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019.
When the world back in January passed the bleak threshold of 2 million deaths, immunization drives had just started in Europe and the United States. Today, they are underway in more than 190 countries, though progress in bringing the virus under control varies widely.
While the campaigns in the U.S. and Britain have hit their stride and people and businesses there are beginning to contemplate life after the pandemic, other places, mostly poorer countries but some rich ones as well, are lagging behind in putting shots in arms and have imposed new lockdowns and other restrictions as virus cases soar.
Also read: Global Covid death toll nears 3 million
Worldwide, deaths are on the rise again, running at around 12,000 per day on average, and new cases are climbing too, eclipsing 700,000 a day.
“This is not the situation we want to be in 16 months into a pandemic, where we have proven control measures,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, one of the World Health Organization’s leaders on COVID-19.
In Brazil, where deaths are running at about 3,000 per day, accounting for one-quarter of the lives lost worldwide in recent weeks, the crisis has been likened to a “raging inferno” by one WHO official. A more contagious variant of the virus has been rampaging across the country.
As cases surge, hospitals are running out of critical sedatives. As a result, there have been reports of some doctors diluting what supplies remain and even tying patients to their beds while breathing tubes are pushed down their throats.
Also read: Global Covid-19 cases top 134.5 million
The slow vaccine rollout has crushed Brazilians’ pride in their own history of carrying out huge immunization campaigns that were the envy of the developing world.
Taking cues from President Jair Bolsonaro, who has likened the virus to little more than a flu, his Health Ministry for months bet big on a single vaccine, ignoring other producers. When bottlenecks emerged, it was too late to get large quantities in time.
Watching so many patients suffer and die alone at her Rio de Janeiro hospital impelled nurse Lidiane Melo to take desperate measures.
In the early days of the pandemic, as sufferers were calling out for comfort that she was too busy to provide, Melo filled two rubber gloves with warm water, knotted them shut, and sandwiched them around a patient’s hand to simulate a loving touch.
Some have christened the practice the “hand of God,” and it is now the searing image of a nation roiled by a medical emergency with no end in sight.
“Patients can’t receive visitors. Sadly, there’s no way. So it’s a way to provide psychological support, to be there together with the patient holding their hand,” Melo said. She added: “And this year it’s worse, the seriousness of patients is 1,000 times greater.”
This situation is similarly dire in India, where cases spiked in February after weeks of steady decline, taking authorities by surprise. In a surge driven by variants of the virus, India saw over 180,000 new infections in one 24-hour span during the past week, bringing the total number of cases to over 13.9 million.
Problems that India had overcome last year are coming back to haunt health officials. Only 178 ventilators were free Wednesday afternoon in New Delhi, a city of 29 million, where 13,000 new infections were reported the previous day.
The challenges facing India reverberate beyond its borders since the country is the biggest supplier of shots to COVAX, the U.N.-sponsored program to distribute vaccines to poorer parts of the world. Last month, India said it would suspend vaccine exports until the virus’s spread inside the country slows.
The WHO recently described the supply situation as precarious. Up to 60 countries might not receive any more shots until June, by one estimate. To date, COVAX has delivered about 40 million doses to more than 100 countries, enough to cover barely 0.25% of the world’s population.
Globally, about 87% of the 700 million doses dispensed have been given out in rich countries. While 1 in 4 people in wealthy nations have received a vaccine, in poor countries the figure is 1 in more than 500.
In recent days, the U.S. and some European countries put the use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine on hold while authorities investigate extremely rare but dangerous blood clots. AstraZeneca’s vaccine has likewise been hit with delays and restrictions because of a clotting scare.
Another concern: Poorer countries are relying on vaccines made by China and Russia, which some scientists believe provide less protection than those made by Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca.
Last week, the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged the country’s vaccines offer low protection and said officials are considering mixing them with other shots to improve their effectiveness.
In the U.S., where over 560,000 lives have been lost, accounting for more than 1 in 6 of the world’s COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations and deaths have dropped, businesses are reopening, and life is beginning to return to something approaching normalcy in several states. The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits tumbled last week to 576,000, a post-COVID-19 low.
But progress has been patchy, and new hot spots — most notably Michigan — have flared up in recent weeks. Still, deaths in the U.S. are down to about 700 per day on average, plummeting from a mid-January peak of about 3,400.
In Europe, countries are feeling the brunt of a more contagious variant that first ravaged Britain and has pushed the continent’s COVID-19-related death toll beyond 1 million.
Close to 6,000 gravely ill patients are being treated in French critical care units, numbers not seen since the first wave a year ago.
Dr. Marc Leone, head of intensive care at the North Hospital in Marseille, said exhausted front-line staff members who were feted as heroes at the start of the pandemic now feel alone and are clinging to hope that renewed school closings and other restrictions will help curb the virus in the coming weeks.
“There’s exhaustion, more bad tempers. You have to tread carefully because there are a lot of conflicts,” he said. “We’ll give everything we have to get through these 15 days as best we can.”
India continues to record over 200,000 new COVID-19 cases per day
India registered 234,692 new COVID-19 cases, the third consecutive day that the country reported over 200,000 new cases, taking the total tally to 14,526,609, said the data released by the federal health ministry on Saturday.
Besides, as many as 1,341 people died since Friday morning, as the total death toll rose to 175,649.
There are still a total of 1,679,740 active cases in the country, with an increase of 109,997 active cases through Friday, as 12,671,220 people have been cured and discharged from hospitals so far across the country.
The COVID-19 figures continue to peak in the country every day, as the federal government has ruled out imposing a complete lockdown to contain the worsening situation. While some school examinations stand cancelled, others have been postponed in the wake of COVID-19 situation.
As a precautionary measure the national capital Delhi is witnessing a weekend curfew beginning Friday night, till Monday morning.
Also read: Mumbai imposes strict virus restrictions as infections surge
The number of daily active cases has been on the rise over the past few weeks. In January the number of daily cases in the country had come down to below-10,000. As many as 9102 new cases were reported between January 25-26, which was the lowest in the previous 237 days.
India's nationwide vaccination drive was kicked off on Jan. 16. So far over 119.93 million people have been vaccinated across the country.
Meanwhile, the federal government has ramped up COVID-19 testing facilities across the country, even as over 264 million tests have been conducted so far.
As many as 264,972,022 tests were conducted till Friday, out of which 1,495,397 tests were conducted on Friday alone, said the latest data issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Saturday.
The national capital Delhi, which has been one of the most COVID-19 affected places in the country, witnessed nearly 19,500 new cases and 141 deaths through Friday.
Also read: Day workers leaving India's Mumbai as virus dries up jobs
So far as many as 11,793 people have died in the national capital due to COVID-19, confirmed the Delhi's health department.
With 200,000 in 1 day, India skyrockets past 14M virus cases
India reported more than 200,000 new coronavirus cases Thursday, skyrocketing past 14 million overall as an intensifying outbreak puts a grim weight on its fragile health care system.
In the capital, New Delhi, more than a dozen hotels and wedding banquet halls were ordered to be converted into COVID-19 centers attached to hospitals.
“The surge is alarming,” said S.K. Sarin, a government health expert in New Delhi.
The bustle of India’s biggest city and financial capital, Mumbai, ebbed under lockdown-like curbs to curb the spread of the virus. The action imposed by worst-hit Maharashtra state Wednesday night closed most industries, businesses and public places and limits the movement of people for 15 days, but didn’t stop train and air services.
In recent days, migrant workers hauling backpacks have swarmed overcrowded trains leaving Mumbai, an exodus among panic-stricken day laborers.
In addition to the 200,739 new cases of infection, the Health Ministry also reported 1,038 fatalities from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, taking deaths to 173,123 since the pandemic started last year.
India’s total cases are second behind the United States and its deaths are fourth behind the U.S., Brazil and Mexico. The actual numbers may be much higher with limited testing among India’s nearly 1.4 billion people.
Also Read: India records highest spike of daily COVID-19 cases this year
Shahid Jamil, a virologist, said the recent local and state elections with massive political rallies and a major Hindu festival with hundreds of thousands of devotees bathing in the Ganges river in the northern city of Haridwar were super-spreader events.
India is ramping up its vaccination drive. The Health Ministry said the total vaccinations crossed 114 million with more than 3 million doses administered on Wednesday.
Hospitals in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and several others state were overwhelmed with patients with several hospitals reporting shortage of oxygen cylinders.
Cremation and burial grounds in the worst-hit area also were finding it difficult to cope with the increasing number of bodies arriving for last rites, Indian media reports said.
Imran Sheikh, a resident of the western city of Pune, said hospital authorities asked him to arrange for an oxygen gas cylinder for his relative undergoing COVID-19 treatment.
New Delhi and dozens of other cities and towns imposed night curfews as they battled an infection rate that almost doubled within 11 days.
Also Read: India's COVID-19 tally rises to 11,599,130 with nearly 44,000 new cases .
When infections began plummeting in India in September, many concluded the worst had passed. Masks and social distancing were abandoned. When cases began rising again in February, authorities were left scrambling.