New world record for contamination in India



The vaccination campaign against Covid-19 in India, here in Bombay. – Rajanish kakade

Faced with the spectacular surge of the coronavirus epidemic in India, which on Sunday recorded a world record of nearly 350,000 people infected in a single day, several countries including those of the EU, the United Kingdom and the United States offered to help.

In Iraq, more than 80 people perished on Sunday, torn from their respirators, asphyxiated by smoke or charred in the fire of a hospital dedicated to Covid-19 in Baghdad, a tragedy born of negligence which earned the minister a suspension of Health. In India, where a new variant is rife, 2,767 people died from Covid-19 in 24 hours, a sad national record.

“Storm”

With nearly 350,000 new cases in one day, unprecedented globally, the giant of 1.3 billion people is unable to stem the epidemic. Worldwide, 823,179 additional contaminations were recorded in 24 hours, according to a count made on Sunday by AFP. Faced with this “storm”, according to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, local authorities have extended the confinement in force in the capital New Delhi by one week.

“The ravages of the coronavirus continue and there is no respite,” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said. The social network Twitter confirmed to have deleted, at the request of the Indian authorities, dozens of tweets criticizing the executive in the management of the health crisis. In hospitals, witnesses describe corridors cluttered with beds and stretchers and families begging in vain for oxygen or a place for their dying loved ones.

“I saw three corpses in six minutes,” says Ravi Kumar, who managed to get his octogenarian grandfather admitted to a hospital in the capital after waiting all night. “Inside, there are no beds, just stretchers side by side with two patients on each.” 16.9 million people have been infected in India since the start of the pandemic, and more than 192,000 have died, placing the country fourth in the world in the number of deaths.

On Sunday, the European Union promised to provide “assistance” to India, via its European Civil Protection Mechanism. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also announced that her government was preparing to provide emergency aid, without giving details. “Vital medical equipment, including hundreds of oxygen concentrators and respirators, is now on its way from the UK to India,” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

Support from several countries

And the United States will “quickly deploy additional support to the people of India and the heroes of the Indian health system,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted on Sunday. At the same time, several countries are closing their doors to India. Neighboring Bangladesh will suspend land crossings for two weeks, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told AFP on Sunday.

The United States is advising against travel there, while Canada suspended flights from India and Pakistan for 30 days on Friday. The detection of the “Indian” variant in Belgium, Switzerland and Sunday in Greece, worries in Europe. France set up a new protocol on Saturday to stop the arrival of variants. Travelers from five countries at risk, Brazil, India, South Africa, Argentina and Chile, are subjected to an antigen test on their arrival in France, in addition to a PCR test carried out before the flight, and must be in solitary confinement for ten days.

“We have started the battle against these variants, which are a threat against which we must protect ourselves,” Prime Minister Jean Castex declared Sunday at Roissy airport in Paris. “The variants (South African and Brazilian) are very few and tend to regress,” he observed, however. Brazil also broke a new monthly death record, recording 67,977 deaths from Covid-19 on Saturday since the beginning of April. Greece for its part exceeded 10,000 dead since the start of the epidemic on Sunday, according to the national public health body Eody.

The Covid-19 has killed more than three million – at least 3,088,103 – worldwide since the World Health Organization (WHO) office in China reported its appearance at the end of December 2019, d ‘after a report established by AFP on Saturday. Three months before the Olympic Games, the situation in Japan is also worrying: the state of emergency enters into force in Tokyo and in three other departments (Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo) from Sunday and at least until May 11.

128 million doses administered in Europe

The slowness of vaccination also feeds doubts about the ability of this country to organize the Olympics in less than a hundred days. Globally, vaccination is nevertheless accelerating in the world. The milestone of one billion – at least 1,002,938,540 – doses of Covid vaccines, administered in 207 countries or territories, was crossed at the end of the day on Saturday, according to an AFP count from official sources.

More than half of them (58%) were injected in three countries: the United States (225.6 million), China (216.1 million) and India (138.4 million). But in terms of its population, Israel comes first, with nearly six in ten Israelis already fully vaccinated. In the European Union, 128 million doses have been administered to 21% of the population.



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