India virus cases hit 200,000 as hospitals gasp for oxygen
India’s two largest cities imposed stringent restrictions on movement and one planned to use hotels and banquet halls to treat coronavirus patients as new infections in the country shot past 200,000 on Thursday amid a devastating surge that is straining a fragile health system.
Many Indian hospitals were scrambling for beds and oxygen as COVID-19 infections surged to a new daily record on Thursday, with a second wave of infections centred on the rich western state of Maharashtra.
New Delhi announced stay-at-home orders for the weekend, though essential workers will be able to move about if they have a pass from local authorities. Restaurants, malls, gyms and spas will be shut down. Movie theaters will close on weekends, but can operate on weekdays at a third of their capacity.
The moves in the capital came ater similar measures were imposed in the worst-hit state of Maharashtra, home to financial capital, Mumbai. The bustle of India’s biggest city ebbed ater authorities closed most industries, businesses and public places on Wednesday night and put limits on the movement of people for 15 days. Train and plane travel was still allowed, however.
Dozens of other towns and cities have also imposed nightime curfews.
The surge in cases was weighing on hospitals in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and several other states, where many reported a shortage of oxygen tanks.
The 200,739 new infections recorded on Thursday are about twice the number of daily cases that were recorded during the last peak, in September. The Health Ministry also reported 1,038 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, pushing the toll over 173,000.
The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) announced that it conducted 225,031 additional COVID-19 tests and detected 1,928 new coronavirus cases.
MOHAP also announced four deaths due to COVID-19 complications.
The Ministry also noted that an additional 1,614 individuals had fully recovered from COVID-19.
The Ministry also announced that 91,882 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered during the past 24 hours.
The total number of doses provided up to Thursday stands at 9,387,344 with a rate of vaccine distribution of 94.91 doses per 100 people.
Elsewhere in Asia storm clouds were once again gathering over the Tokyo Olympics.
Top politician Toshiro Nikai, the ruling party’s number two, said the games must be cancelled “without hesitation” if the virus situation is too severe.
Although officials were quick to dismiss Nikai’s remarks, public opinion is turning against the event with towns cancelling torch events as the nation worries over a fourth wave of infections.
World Bank President David Malpass called on countries on Thursday to contribute their “excess” doses of COVID-19 vaccines to lowincome countries in the COVAX facility struggling to inoculate their most vulnerable including health workers.
“Many countries now have dollars available to spend on doses but rapid deliveries aren’t available. I would like to underline here the importance for countries that have the prospect of excess vaccine supplies to release them as soon as possible,” he told a fund-raising event of the Gavi Vaccine Alliance.
A top official from the World Health Organisation says Europe has surpassed 1 million deaths from COVID-19.
Dr Hans Kluge says the situation remains “serious” with about 1.6 million new cases reported each week in the 53 countries that make up its European region.
There is still a “shocking disparity” in global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday.
Tedros, addressing an event of the Gavi Vaccine Alliance, said that some low and middle income countries in the COVAX facility still had not received any vaccines, while others had not received their second round allocation. “We need an urgent scale-up in financing COVAX,” he said.
France’s COVID-19 death toll rose on Thursday to more than 100,000, according to the latest hospital figures from the health ministry, marking a bleak milestone for President Emmanuel Macron’s government.
Country running out of hospital beds; Delhi imposes weekend curfew; UAE reports 1,928 new cases, 4 deaths; Europe deaths cross 1m mark; virus imperils Tokyo Olympics; shocking disparity persists in vaccine distribution, says WHO.