India confirms 400,000 deaths from Covid-19 – half in past two months
India has confirmed 400,000 deaths from Covid-19 - half of them in the past two months alone -as the virulent Delta variant infects hundreds of thousands daily.
The grim figure announced yesterday is believed to be a fraction of the true total. It is behind only the United States and Brazil.
The health ministry said 853 people died in the past 24 hours, raising the total fatalities to 400,312 since the pandemic began.
The first known Covid-19 death in India happened on March 12 last year.
India, a country of nearly 1.4 billion people, has confirmed more than 30.4 million infections with 46,617 new cases detected in the past 24 hours.
That total also is believed to be an undercount.
New cases are on the decline after exceeding 400,000 a day in May.
But authorities are preparing for another possible wave of infection around September and are trying to ramp up vaccination.
Less than 5 per cent of India's people are fully immunised.
More than 340 million doses have been administered since mid-january, according to the ministry.
Health minister Harsh Vardhan said on Wednesday that vaccination speed has picked up after the federal government started providing 75 per cent of vaccines free to states.
About two billion doses could be available by December with India's two main suppliers, Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech, ramping up production and five other vaccines potentially being made available.
Meanwhile, Australia plans to halve commercial passenger arrivals due to coronavirus risks as parts of the country emerge from lockdowns.
The country will reduce its cap on arrivals from 6,000 passengers a week to 3,000 by July 14 to reduce pressure on hotel quarantine, prime minister Scott Morrison said after a meeting with state and territory leaders.
Australia already has some of the world's tightest border restrictions aimed at keeping Covid-19 out of the country.
The new restrictions add to obstacles faced by 34,000 Australian citizens and permanent residents stranded overseas and registered with the government as wanting to come home.
The government will charter more airliners to repatriate Australians, but the reduced limit on commercial passenger arrivals could continue until next year.
"If medical advice changes between now and then, if medical advice suggests that we can alter that, then of course the National Cabinet has always been receptive to that advice and we'll continue to monitor that," Mr Morrison told reporters, referring to his decision-making meetings with the state and territory leaders. We wouldn't want to keep those caps in place any longer than we had to," he added.
Almost half the Australian population have been locked down since last week due to clusters mostly of the Delta variant that is thought to be more contagious. Several cities in Queensland state and the Northern Territory came out of lockdown yesterday.