Covid: India tops 20 million cases amid warning of horrible weeks ahead
AFP/Mumbai Filed on May 4, 2021 | Last updated on May 4, 2021 at 08.20 am
Infections in India are rising faster than anywhere else in the world, a solemn reminder the pandemic is far from ending.
Covid-19 infections and deaths are mounting with alarming speed in India with no end in sight to the crisis and a top expert warning that the coming weeks in the country of nearly 1.4 billion people will be “horrible.”
India’s official count of coronavirus cases surpassed 20 million on Tuesday, nearly doubling in the past three months, while deaths officially have passed 220,000.
India Covid crisis: UK commits more medical aid
Prasun Sonwalkar/London
Photo: PTI
1.5 million-strong Indian diaspora in the UK collates help at various levels
After sending ventilators, oxygen concentrators, and oxygen generation units to New Delhi last week, the Boris Johnson government on Sunday committed more aid, including 1,000 ventilators, as the 1.5 million (m)-strong Indian diaspora collated help at various levels.
The latest package is in addition to 200 ventilators, 495 oxygen concentrators, and three oxygen generation units announced last week.
Two leading figures in the United Kingdom’s (UK) fight against Covid-19 – chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance – have spoken to their Indian counterparts to provide advice, insight, and expertise as they deal with the world’s worst surge in Covid-19 levels.
India Assembly Elections: Modi s party takes electoral hit amid Covid surge
AP/New Delhi
Photo: Reuters
Public anger for allowing the elections to go forward despite the risk has been directed at both Modi’s government and the Election Commission.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi suffered a resounding defeat in a key state election on Sunday, indicating his Hindu nationalist party’s political strength may be slipping as the country struggles to contain an unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was unable to dislodge West Bengal state’s firebrand chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, after a hard-fought campaign.
New Zealand not dodging differences with China: Ardern
AFP/Wellington
Reuters file photo
Ardern said New Zealand had already raised grave concerns with China about the treatment of Uyghurs.
New Zealand’s differences with China on human rights are becoming “harder to reconcile”, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday, after Wellington faced criticism for failing to challenge its largest trading partner.
Ardern’s government has taken flak over its meek criticisms of China’s rights record, leading to accusations New Zealand is a weak link in the US-led Five Eyes intelligence network.
In a speech at a China Business Summit in Auckland, Ardern said New Zealand had already raised “grave concerns” with China about the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang province and spoken out about the erosion of democratic freedoms in Hong Kong.