Following a second surge n infections that has outstripped the first, several Indian state leaders have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend vaccines to the majority of the country’s hundreds of millions of adults.
On Monday, India broke the dreadful record of 100,000 regular infections for the first time. According to data from the health ministry, the nation had 96,982 cases as of Tuesday. There were 446 additional fatalities, bringing the overall number of people killed to 165,547.
After the United States and Brazil, India is the nation with the most cases, with almost 12.7 million.
India the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer extended its vaccination schedule this month to cover people above the age of 45.
However,
it has only vaccinated approximately 1 in 25 citizens so far, relative to nearly 1 in 2 in the United Kingdom and 1 in 3 in the United States.
In a letter to Modi late Monday, Uddhav Thackeray, the chief minister of India’s worst-affected Maharashtra district, wrote, “If a larger number of young and working population is vaccinated, the intensity of the cases would be much lower than the treatment that they need today”
Many other governments, like Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, have also requested quicker and broader vaccines, with several, including Odisha, citing vaccine scarcity.
According to Indian media sources on Tuesday, the Delhi government has also declared a night curfew in the capital until April 30.
The federal government has announced that the vaccination programme would be expanded to cover more individuals in the “near future,” and that vaccine stocks will be increased.
Regular infections in the country have risen dramatically after reaching a multi-month low in early February, when officials relaxed most prohibitions and citizens started wearing masks and avoiding social contact.
India has had the highest amount of infections in the past week of any country on the planet. Epidemiologists believe that more infectious strains of the virus may have played a part in the second wave.
There has also been strong condemnation of tens of thousands of largely maskless citizens cramming campaign protests in four states where elections are taking place. Modi and his cabinet members have also given speeches at election rallies.
Tens of thousands of Hindu devotees are scheduled to gather on the banks of the Ganges in the northern state of Uttarakhand, which is governed by Modi’s faction, for the weeks-long ‘Kumbh Mela,’ or pitcher festival.
Organizers had anticipated more than 150 million participants to attend, but due to an increase in COVID-19 events, the figure is likely to be somewhat lower now.
