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A resident reacts as a health worker collects a swab sample for the Covid-19 coronavirus in Colombo on May 6, 2021. (Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP) Sri Lanka on Thursday became the latest of India’s neighbours to seal its borders with the South Asian giant as it battles a record coronavirus surge. Bangladesh and Nepal have also banned flights and sought to close their borders with India, where a huge rise in numbers in the past three weeks has taken deaths past 230,000 and cases over 21 million. All three countries are fighting their own pandemic surges, which Red Cross leaders have described as a “human catastrophe”.
Covid victims cremated as Nepal suffers virus surge Duration: 00:24 At a Hindu ground in Kathmandu, Covid victims in Nepal are cremated as the country witnesses an upsurge in Covid-19 cases. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says many hospitals are full and overflowing with Covid-19 patients in Nepal, and that the daily caseload is 57 times higher than it was one month ago.
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India saw record new jumps in COVID-19 cases and deaths on Thursday, dashing tentative hopes that the catastrophic recent surge was easing.
Health ministry numbers showed 3,980 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the national total to 230,168, and 412,262 new cases, bringing India s caseload since the pandemic began to 21.1 million.
Many experts suspect that with low levels of testing and poor record-keeping for cause of death - and crematoriums overwhelmed in many places - the real numbers could be significantly higher.
The rise follows several days of falling case numbers that had raised government hopes that the virus surge may have been easing.
elisfkc2 / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
In Nepal, a situation is unfolding that looks chillingly familiar.
Covid-19 cases are skyrocketing, hospitals are overwhelmed, and the country’s Prime Minister is pleading for help from other nations.
Nepal is now reporting about 20 daily Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people about the same number as India was reporting two weeks ago.
Last weekend, 44% of Nepal’s Covid tests came back positive, according to government figures quoted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), as it warned of an impending crisis.
“What is happening in India right now is a horrifying preview of Nepal’s future if we cannot contain this latest Covid surge that is claiming more lives by the minute,” Nepal’s Red Cross chairperson, Dr. Netra Prasad Timsina, said in a statement.