Fresh curbs in Mumbai amid new wave scare
INFECTIONS SPIKE TO OCTOBER LEVELS AS VACCINATION DRIVE LAGS
MUMBAI imposed fresh coronavirus restrictions on Monday (22) as a rise in cases in the worst-affected region sparked fears of a new wave, while the country’s vast inoculation drive fell behind schedule.
All religious, social and political gatherings are banned in the city and in Maharashtra state, home to 110 million people, after infections spiked to levels last seen in October.
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said he was “worried about the severity of a second wave if it hits the state,” which has recorded nearly 52,000 deaths since the pandemic began. “The simple mantra is wear a mask, follow discipline and avoid lockdown. We will review the situation again in the next eight days and decide on a lockdown,” Thackeray said in a live television address last Sunday (21).
Elsewhere in the state there were tighter restrictions. India’s tough nationwide lockdown imposed in March has largely been relaxed, with even its famously lavish weddings and cricket crowds returning, albeit with numbers capped.
Daily new cases peaked at more than 97,000 in September but have been falling sharply, coming in at under 9,000 a day earlier this month. But the past two weeks have seen an uptick, with around 14,000 new infections on Monday, the biggest rise coming in Maharashtra, taking India’s total past 11 million since the pandemic began with 156,000 deaths.
New Delhi on Monday recorded just 46 new infections and two deaths in the crowded megacity of 20 million.
Anand Krishnan, a professor at the AIIMS hospital in Delhi, said it was too soon to say whether there would be a new wave, but he said the “primary focus” should be on sticking to precautions like masks, and vaccines.
India’s huge inoculation drive is lagging behind schedule as the world’s biggest vaccine maker said it had been told to prioritise domestic supplies ahead of exports to other poor countries.
India began vaccinating healthcare and other frontline workers from midJanuary, aiming to inoculate 300 million people - or 600 million shots in a twodose regime – by July. But at the current pace, with 11.1 million shots given as of Monday, that will take several years.
The head of India’s Serum Institute (SII), which other poor countries are relying on for supplies of the AstraZeneca vaccine, said last Sunday it had been “directed to prioritise the huge needs of India”. Adar Poonawalla did not clarify whether these were new instructions or if they were related to the slow pace of India’s vaccine rollout. A spokesperson declined to comment further.
Many low-and middle-income countries, ranging from Bangladesh to Brazil, are depending on SII’s AstraZeneca vaccine, branded Covishield by the Indian company.
But demand is growing, including from Western countries like Canada, where Poonawalla has promised to deliver the Covishield vaccine next month.
Britain’s drug regulator is also auditing manufacturing processes at SII, potentially paving the way for the Covishield vaccine to be shipped from there to the UK and other countries.
A DOCUMENTARY by Al Jazeera that aired explosive claims about Bangladesh’s army chief must be taken down from the internet in the country, a court ordered last Wednesday (17).
The Doha-based broadcaster released the hour-long programme titled All the Prime Minister’s Men in early February. The film detailed allegations that the country’s security forces and prime minister Sheikh Hasina had links to a criminal gang.
The high court ordered Bangladesh’s telcoms regulator to “remove or take down Al Jazeera’s documentary... from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and other digital platforms where it has been shared”, the regulator’s lawyer, Khandaker Reza-e-Raquib, said.
Reza-e-Raquib said the court deemed the film was “propaganda against Bangladesh”.
The regulator said in a statement after the court ruling that it would take “appropriate steps to remove the content”.
It is not clear how the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission will remove the programme. It has been posted by Al Jazeera English on its official YouTube channel where it has been viewed more than 6.8 million times.
A spokesman for the regulator said it had already called on Facebook and Twitter to remove the film. There has been no immediate comment from either social media giant about the request.
Al Jazeera English is broadcast by cable television networks in Bangladesh. There has been no court order for the channel to be taken down.
Bangladesh’s foreign ministry has slammed the documentary as a “smear campaign” by the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, which is banned from contesting elections.
The army said the documentary contained “numerous false and fabricated stories”.
A statement released by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit, which produced the documentary, said it “stands 100 per cent behind the accuracy of its journalism and the brave individuals who were prepared to take a stand against corruption at great personal risk to themselves and their families”.
A pro-government group, the Bangabandhu Foundation, has also filed a complaint in court under the country’s sedition laws against Al Jazeera Media Network acting director general Mostefa Souag and several people featured in the film, prosecutor Hemayet Uddin Khan said.