Over to India, where COVID is still raging out of control, as the number of COVID cases has surpassed 20 million on Tuesday, nearly doubling in the past three months. Around 400,000 new cases were confirmed today. While authorities continue to fight tooth and nail to curb the outbreak, Indian scientists have now appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to publicly release virus data, as they believe having the data would allow them to save lives, as well as to control a massive humanitarian crisis.
The Indian government’s failure at heeding warnings about the emergence of a more contagious virus strain and another outbreak earlier this year has a deluge of Indians succumbing to the virus. 386,452 new cases were reported today, and another 3,498 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities to 208,330. The figures are believed to be an undercount, but it’s unclear by how much.
While many continue to blame the Indian government for not battening down the hatches before the recent outbreak hit, scientists in the nation didn’t stop short of asking the Indian government to release virus data. Needless to say, they are trying to help the government tackle the latest outbreak.
The virus has been menacing and erratic despite the government stepping up efforts to inoculate the public. And over 350 scientists in the country believe India’s pandemic response has been marred by insufficient data. They appealed to the Indian government to publicly release the data, so that they would be allowed to learn more about the sequencing of virus variants, in order to save the country from falling into yet another trap set by the virus.
Meantime, authorities are losing no time in curbing the outbreak. As more and more foreign nations have pledged to help India, more oxygen and medical supplies are coming in from around the world to help the nation’s fragile health system. Now, beds are being added in hospitals, more tests are being done, and a few drugs that are effective against COVID are being produced.
Equally disturbing is the sluggish vaccination rate in India. Only 10 percent of Indians have received one dose of the COVID vaccine, and around 1.5 percent have received both, despite the government’s efforts to immunise more adult Indians.
And more oxygen generators and medical equipment are coming in from other countries. Russia sent two aircraft carrying oxygen generating equipment to India, and the Indian air force also airlifted oxygen containers from Singapore, Dubai and Bangkok. China, meanwhile, also offered help by sending 25,000 oxygen concentrators from Beijing to India. No immediate comment from India as of yet, but this shows they could be a step closer to thawing tensions between the two countries.
Nonetheless, a virus expert at the University of Cambridge in England expressed concerns over the country’s COVID crisis, saying, “This is not going to end very soon. And really… the soul of the country is at risk in a way.”
Indian authorities will have to take further steps to tackle this crisis which is now believed to be no end in sight.
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