India s COVID-19 death toll surpasses 200,000 after record case surge Toggle share menu
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India s COVID-19 death toll surpasses 200,000 after record case surge
A relative of a patient who died of COVID-19 mourns outside a government hospital in Ahmedabad, India on Apr 27, 2021. (Photo: AP/Ajit Solanki)
28 Apr 2021 12:55PM (Updated:
28 Apr 2021 02:39PM) Share this content
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NEW DELHI: India s toll from the coronavirus surged past 200,000 on Wednesday (Apr 28), the country s deadliest day yet, as shortages of oxygen, medical supplies and hospital staff members compounded a record number of new infections.
The second wave of infections has seen at least 300,000 people test positive each day for the past week, overwhelming healthcare facilities and crematoriums and driving an increasingly urgent international response.
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New Delhi: For months, developed economies have hoarded Covid-19 vaccines and the raw materials needed to make them. Now, they’re being forced to act as an explosive outbreak in India raises the risk of new virus mutations that could threaten the wider world.
Under mounting criticism for dominating vaccine resources, the U.S. said this week that it will help India by sending items needed to manufacture vaccines as part of an aid package. European countries are also pledging help as new cases in the South Asian country smash world records. President Joe Biden’s administration is separately vowing to share its stockpile of AstraZeneca Plc vaccines which the U.S. hasn’t even approved for use and meeting with drug companies about boosting supply and waiving intellectual property protections on Covid-19 shots, a shift India and South Africa have been pushing for.
Biju Boro/AFP via Getty Images
The aunt of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has died of COVID-19, her family told PTI.
India is being overwhelmed by the virus, with mass cremations and people dying waiting for treatment.
Modi has been widely criticized for his response to the virus, and he held large rallies this month.
The aunt of India s prime minister has reportedly died of COVID-19 as India still fights its devastating surge.
The Press Trust of India reported that Prime Minister Narendra Modi s aunt Narmadaben Modi died while she was undergoing treatment for coronavirus infection on Tuesday, citing family members.
Apr 28, 2021
For months, developed economies have hoarded COVID-19 vaccines and the raw materials needed to make them. Now, they’re being forced to act as an explosive outbreak in India raises the risk of new virus mutations that could threaten the wider world.
Under mounting criticism for dominating vaccine resources, the U.S. said this week that it will help India by sending items needed to manufacture vaccines as part of an aid package. European countries are also pledging help as new cases in the South Asian country smash world records. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is separately vowing to share its stockpile of AstraZeneca PLC vaccines which the U.S. hasn’t even approved for use and meeting with drug companies about boosting supply and waiving intellectual property protections on COVID-19 shots, a shift India and South Africa have been pushing for.
Experts believe the official tally vastly underestimates the actual toll in a nation of 1.35 billion, however.
The world is entering a critical phase of the pandemic and needs to have vaccinations available for all adults as soon as possible, said Udaya Regmi, South Asia head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). This is both an ethical and public health imperative, he added. As variants keep spreading, this pandemic is far from over until the whole world is safe.
Ambulances lined up for hours in the capital, New Delhi, to take the bodies of COVID-19 victims to makeshift crematorium facilities in parks and parking lots, where bodies burned on rows of funeral pyres.