Kolkata: India s coronavirus disaster deepened on Thursday with the daily death toll climbing above 3,600 as dozens of countries sent urgent medical aid to help tackle the spiralling crisis.
Even with vaccine rollouts underway, fatalities are still speeding past major milestones across the globe, such as in Brazil where total deaths have now surpassed 400,000 people since the start of the pandemic.
However, the United States and several European nations are starting to ease restrictions as their vaccination campaigns pick up. In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city hopes to “fully reopen” on July 1.
But the World Health Organization issued a stark warning to European nations that relaxing Covid measures could spark a “perfect storm” allowing cases to spiral — as in India.
“It is very important to realise that the situation in India can happen anywhere,” said WHO Europe chief Hans Kluge.
Death and infection rates have been rising exponentially throughout April in India, which experts blame in part on mass gatherings.
On Thursday, the south Asian nation reported 3,645 deaths over the past 24 hours, while confirmed new cases hit a new global record with more than 379,000. The official numbers are widely believed to be far below the reality.
The pandemic has claimed at least 3.1 million lives around the world, with India accounting for more than 200,000 fatalities, the worst toll outside the Americas.
The US is the worst-affected country with more than 570,000 deaths, and Brazil reached 400,000 deaths Thursday after the country was devastated by a surge in cases at the start of the year that pushed hospitals to the brink of collapse in many areas. Its daily average death toll of 2,526 over the last week remains second only to India.
In many Indian cities, hospitals are running out of beds as relatives of the sick jostle for medicines and oxygen cylinders.
“We rushed to multiple hospitals, but were denied admission everywhere,” said the son of an 84-year-old woman who died at home this week after a desperate search for a hospital bed and oxygen in Kolkata, capital of West Bengal state. The Indian government will open vaccinations to all adults from Saturday. AFP
