Over to India, where coronavirus deaths rose by a record 3,780 during the last 24 hours. Yesterday, it became the second country to cross the grim milestone of 20 million COVID infections after the United States. While hospitals in the nation continue to scramble to find supplies of medical equipment and oxygen, Prime Minister Modi’s image of competence is being damaged because of his failure to handle the crisis.
More than 382,315 COVID infections were recorded on Wednesday, and more than 3,780 Indians have succumbed to the virus in the past day. True figures are believed to be much higher.
The more contagious Indian variant of the coronavirus can account for the recent surge, and has overwhelmed morgues, as many Indians have succumbed to the virus.
Transport problems in the country have rendered oxygen supplies useless. So, hospitals are still being plagued by shortages of bed and oxygen. Relatives of COVID victims are now scrambling to get oxygen supplies for their loved ones.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s failure to tackle this crisis is now described as one of a COVID crisis debacle. The debacle has also seen his image of competence being damaged, as many Indians are not happy with the Indian government’s response to the crisis, and they demanded more virus data be released, so that scientists can help the Indian government to deal with the crisis.
Despite the Indian government pulling out all the stops for a breakthrough in the fight against COVID, experts believe there is no new breakthrough on the horizon yet. Although Modi has been said to have been taking the virus seriously, instead of calling it a hoax, the sluggish vaccination rate shows the Indian government is doing far too little to curb the outbreak.
Modi’s administration’s reluctance to follow a highly-touted suggestion that a nationwide lockdown should be imposed is to blame for the recent outbreak, according to India’s opposition.
Public health experts also agreed that India will still have to do a lot more to reach herd immunity due to the country’s unsatisfactory inoculation rate, but say hospitalisations and deaths will significantly reduce in six to nine months.
India now has the third largest number of COVID deaths in the world, behind Brazil and the U.S.
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