Govt denies reports of problems with its vaccine campaign
BENGALURU: India’s total Covid-19 cases passed 18 million after another world record daily infection, as the government rejected reports of problems with its vaccine campaign.
India reported 379,257 new Covid-19 cases and 3,645 new deaths yesterday, according to health ministry data. It was the highest number of deaths reported in a single day in India since the start of the pandemic.
India’s best hope to curb its second deadly wave of Covid-19 was to vaccinate its vast population, said experts, and on Wednesday it opened registrations for everyone above the age of 18 to be given jabs from tomorrow.
But the country, which is one of the world’s biggest producers of vaccines, does not have the stocks for the estimated 600 million people who will be eligible.
Many who tried to sign up said they failed, complaining on social media that they could not get a slot or they simply could not get online to register as the website repeatedly crashed.
“Statistics indicate that far from crashing or performing slowly, the system is performing without any glitches,” the government said in a statement on Wednesday.
The government said more than eight million people had registered for the vaccinations, but it was not immediately clear how many had got slots.
About 9% of India’s population have received one dose since the vaccination campaign began in January with healthworkers and then the elderly.
The second wave of infections has overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums and prompted an increasingly urgent response from allies overseas sending equipment.
“India’s outbreak is a humanitarian crisis,” US Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said on Twitter.
“I’m leading a letter to @moderna_tx, @pfizer, and @jnjnews to find out what steps they’re taking to expand global access to their vaccines to save lives and prevent variants from spreading around the world,” she said.
Two planes from Russia, carrying 20 oxygen concentrators, 75 ventilators, 150 bedside monitors, and medicines totalling 22 metric tonnes, arrived in the capital Delhi yesterday.
Delhi is reporting one death from Covid-19 every four minutes and ambulances have been taking the bodies of Covid-19 victims to makeshift crematorium facilities in parks and parking lots, where bodies burned on rows and rows of funeral pyres.
The US State Department issued a travel advisory warning on Wednesday against travel to India because of the pandemic and approved the voluntary departure of family members of US government employees in India.
A country of nearly 1.4 billion people, India thought the worst was over when cases ebbed in September.
But mass public gatherings such as political rallies and religious events that were allowed to continue, and relaxed attitudes on the risks fed by leaders touting victory over the virus led to what now has become a major humanitarian crisis, health experts say.
New variants of the virus have also partly led the surge.
Amid the crisis, voting for the eighth and final phase of the West Bengal state elections began yesterday, even as the devastating surge of infections continues to barrel across the country with a ferocious speed, filling crematoriums and graveyards.
More than eight million people are expected to vote in at least 11,860 polling stations across the state. A commission said distancing measures would be in place.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party have faced criticism over the last few weeks for holding huge election rallies in the state, which health experts suggest might have driven the surge there too.
Other political parties also participated in rallies.
The state recorded more than 17,000 cases in the last 24 hours – its highest spike since the pandemic began. — Agencies
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