Kenyan authorities say a lockdown imposed last month will end as coronavirus infections ease. Credit: EPA As India registers a new grim global record high number of daily coronavirus cases, a downward trend in infections in Germany is continuing and Kenyan authorities say a lockdown imposed last month will end.
Indian officials logged 401,993 new daily COVID-19 cases on Saturday as they struggled to conduct the biggest round of a vaccination drive amid a shortage of doses.
The new infections took the country’s caseload past 19 million.
The total death toll stands at nearly 212,000 with the virus claiming 3523 lives in the past 24 hours, government data showed.
Hit by a second wave of the pandemic, India is the first country to cross 400,000 daily cases after it reported more than 300,000 daily infections for nine straight days.
The virus surge has overwhelmed health care systems, with reports that several patients have died outside hospitals needing hospital beds or medical oxygen.
Hospitals in New Delhi have repeatedly sent out distress messages over oxygen shortages for the past 10 days, with the situation showing little improvement.
Besides health care, the inoculation campaign in India – among the world’s biggest vaccine producers – is floundering too.
As the federal government widened the drive on Saturday to include all adults over 18 years, worst-hit states like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh as well as the capital New Delhi said they were delaying the new round because they had not been assured of adequate supplies.
Private hospital chains in cities like Delhi and Bengaluru who sourced the jabs directly from suppliers said they were carrying out a limited number of vaccinations.
"We have waited to get this vaccine for months. It is crucial that we get inoculated and help the world beat this horrible pandemic," Divya, a 37-year-old homemaker, told broadcaster NDTV at a south Delhi hospital.Vaccines in India are in relatively short supply given its large population of more than 1.3 billion people.Meanwhile, Germany recorded 18,935 coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours on Saturday – 4500 fewer cases than on the same day last week, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for disease control.The country also registered 232 new coroanvirus-related deaths, down from 286 a week ago.The number of people in intensive care wards due to severe cases of COVID-19 remains high, however, at 5009, according to data released on Saturday by the Divi intensive care registry.The seven-day-incidence rate […]
