By Linda Hutchinson-Jafar PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (Reuters) - Trinidad and Tobago will impose a state of emergency from midnight to contain an increase of COVID-19 cases and related deaths, Prime Minister Keith Rowley said on Saturday. Rowley also imposed a curfew from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. local time, with some exceptions to essential services including the energy sector, supermarkets, and pharmacies. The twin island state was experiencing a third wave of COVID-19, Rowley said. Seven hospitals caring for COVID-19 patients are at a critical stage of 73% overall occupancy, Principal Medical Officer Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards added. With a population of more than 1.3 million people, Trinidad and Tobago has registered 15,375 infections, 5,214 of them active, and 265 deaths, health ministry data showed. Health officials have cited a highly transmissible Brazilian variant, first identified in a Venezuelan migrant, as a factor in the increase in cases. Some 60,500 people have received their first
BENGALURU/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India recorded more than 4,000 COVID-19 deaths for a second straight day on Thursday, while infections stayed below 400,000 for a fourth day, though the virus has become rampant in rural areas where cases can go unreported due to a lack of testing. Experts remain unsure when numbers will peak and concern is growing about the transmissibility of the variant that is driving infections in India and spreading worldwide. Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan, said most models had predicted a peak this week and that the country could be seeing signs of that trend. Still, the number of new cases each day is large enough to overwhelm hospitals, she said on Twitter. The key word is cautious optimism. The situation is particularly bad in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, India s most populous state with a population of over 230 million. Television pictures have shown families weeping over the dead in rural hospitals or camping in
Indian health agency chief says most of country should remain locked down for 6-8 weeks
FILE PHOTO: A man rides his bicycle during a lockdown to limit the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Mumbai, India, April 23, 2021. REUTERS/Niharika Kulkarni/File Photo reuters tickers
This content was published on May 12, 2021 - 09:08
May 12, 2021 - 09:08
By Krishna N. Das, Devjyot Ghoshal and Aditya Kalra
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The head of the main Indian health agency responding to the coronavirus has said districts reporting a high number of infections should remain locked down for another six to eight weeks to control the spread of the rampaging disease.
India s COVID-19 deaths cross quarter million as virus ravages countryside
A woman receives treatment inside a COVID-19 ward of a government-run hospital, amidst the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Bijnor district, Uttar Pradesh, India, May 11, 2021. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui reuters tickers
This content was published on May 12, 2021 - 09:15
May 12, 2021 - 09:15
By Danish Siddiqui and Sanjeev Miglani
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India s coronavirus deaths crossed a quarter million on Wednesday in the deadliest 24 hours since the pandemic began, as the disease rampaged through the countryside, overloading a fragile rural healthcare system.
Boosted by highly infectious variants, the second wave erupted in February to inundate hospitals and medical staff, as well as crematoriums and mortuaries. Experts are still unable to say with certainty when the figures will peak.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China reported 12 new COVID-19 cases in the mainland on May 8, up from seven a day earlier, the country s national health authority said on Sunday. The National Health Commission said in a statement that all the new cases were imported infections originating from overseas. The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, rose to 10 from eight a day earlier. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 90,758, while the death toll remains unchanged at 4,636. (Reporting by Hallie Gu, Han Xiao, and Ryan Woo; Editing by Himani Sarkar)