The number of recorded COVID-19 infections in India yesterday climbed above 24 million amid reports that a highly transmissible mutant strain first detected in the country was spreading across the globe.
The Indian B.1.617 variant of the virus has been detected in eight countries of the Americas, including Canada and the US, said Jairo Mendez, a WHO infectious diseases expert.
The mutant strain has also been detected in the UK, as well as in Singapore.
In the Americas, people infected with the variant included travelers in Panama and Argentina who had arrived from India or Europe.
In the Caribbean, cases of the Indian
With Eye on China, India and Europe to Restart Stalled Trade Talks
Voice of America
15 May 2021, 00:05 GMT+10
NEW DELHI - The decision by India and the European Union to restart stalled talks on a free trade pact comes amid growing unease on both sides about China s rise, according to analysts.
The decision was announced following a summit of EU leaders in Portugal last week, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined via video conference.
The meeting was held days after the EU suspended efforts to ratify an ambitious investment agreement with China following tensions that have grown between the 27-member bloc and Beijing about its treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang province.
Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi referred to COVID-19 as the “invisible enemy” during his first public address regarding the nation’s devastating second wave.
As Asia battles a surge of coronavirus infections and much of the world remains unvaccinated, the head of the World Health Organization said it is imperative that richer nations share their vaccines globally.
Health workers administer the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine as a police officer stands guard in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Thursday. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
(CN) With so much of the world still unvaccinated, the chief of the World Health Organization on Friday told richer countries to delay vaccinating children and donate vaccines to fight a pandemic that is dangerously spreading through Southeast Asia.
“Covid-19 has already cost more than 3.3 million lives and we’re on track for the second year of this pandemic to be far more deadly than the first,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, during a news briefing Friday at the agency’s Geneva headquarters.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sounds Alarm on COVID Crisis, Says Country Is on War Footing
On 5/14/21 at 5:10 PM EDT
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is sounding the alarm on the country s worsening COVID-19 crisis as another 4,000 people died from the virus for a third consecutive day on Friday.
Modi said his government was on a war footing trying to contain the new strain of the coronavirus, which was first detected in India and is now popping up across the world.
The highly transmissible B.1.617 variant is sweeping the country, with the total number of coronavirus infections in India surpassing 24 million on Friday.