India coronavirus cases cross 7 million
NEW DELHI, India — India's coronavirus cases surged past seven million on Sunday, taking it ever closer to overtaking the United States as the world's most infected country.
Health ministry data showed a rise of almost 75,000 cases on Sunday, taking the total to 7.05 million, second only to the US which has recorded 7.67 million infections.
Experts say that the true number may be much higher, with testing rates in the vast country of 1.3 billion people — home to some of the planet's most crowded cities — much lower than in many other countries.
This is borne out by a string of studies measuring antibodies to the virus among the Indian population that have indicated infection rates could be several times higher than officially recorded.
India's death toll of 108,334 as of Sunday is also lower than in the US and other countries with higher caseloads.
The United States has recorded 214,000 deaths while Brazil, with two million fewer infections than India, has lost nearly 150,000 lives so far.
Possible factors for this include India's relatively young population, immunity thanks to other diseases — and under-reporting.
The rise in infections in India comes as the government continues to lift restrictions to boost an economy battered by a severe lockdown imposed in March.
On Thursday, cinemas are set to re-open — albeit at 50 percent capacity — and experts fear the upcoming festival season when large crowds gather for public celebrations will exacerbate the situation.
Anticipating a fresh surge in cases, the government has issued strict guidelines and capped the number of revellers for the two main Hindu festivals of Dussehra on October 25 and Diwali next month.
On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a mass awareness campaign, encouraging the public to wear masks, practise hand hygiene and maintain physical distance.
"Our collective efforts have helped saved many lives. We have to continue the momentum and protect our citizens from the virus," Modi tweeted.
'Underlying anxiety'
The virus initially hit major metropolises such as Mumbai and New Delhi, but has since spread to almost every corner of the huge country, including the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Recently, the daily number of new cases has fallen from a peak of almost 100,000 in mid-September to around 60,000-70,000.
But Preeti Kumar of the Delhi-based Public Health Foundation of India said it was too early to assume India has passed the peak.
"What the epidemic has taught us is caution. These declines (in numbers) are real but depend on many factors such as testing, type of testing, intervention efficacy etcetera," Kumar told AFP.
Many Indians are worried too.
"Despite the government's efforts to take things back to normal, it doesn't feel that way because there is an underlying anxiety that I may be the next to become a part of the virus statistics," said Anamika Prasad, 23, a university student.
Jayprakash Shukla, 66, a retired government official, said he was worried about cases going up "hugely and beyond control".
"When I go out, I see many people without masks," he said.
"Maybe they are fed up of wearing masks but if people don't change their ways, it is going to be calamitous for our country."
Follow this page for updates on a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck dozens of people in China.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says on Sunday that he had contracted COVID-19, testing positive at a key point in his flailing campaign for re-election.
Hipkins saYS on his official social media feed that he would need to isolate for up to five days -- less than two weeks before his country's general election.
The leader of the centre-left Labour Party said he started to experience cold symptoms on Saturday and had cancelled most of his weekend engagements. — AFP
The World Health Organization and US health authorities say Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.
The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance "due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries", it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.
So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States. — AFP
The World Health Organization says on Friday that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80% in the last month, days after designating a new "variant of interest".
The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths.
In its weekly update, the UN agency said that nations reported nearly 1.5 million new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80% increase compared to the previous 28 days. — AFP
The head of US intelligence says that there was no evidence that the COVID-19 virus was created in the Chinese government's Wuhan research lab.
In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says they had no information backing recent claims that three scientists at the lab were some of the very first infected with COVID-19 and may have created the virus themselves.
Drawing on intelligence collected by various member agencies of the US intelligence community (IC), the ODNI report says some scientists at the Wuhan lab had done genetic engineering of coronaviruses similar to COVID-19. — AFP
Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was prime minister, a UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday.
The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for "repeated contempts (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process".
But he avoided any formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.
In his resignation statement last Friday, Johnson pre-empted publication of the committee's conclusions, claiming a political stitch-up, even though the body has a majority from his own party.
He was unrepentant again on Thursday, accusing the committee of being "anti-democratic... to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination".
Calling it "beneath contempt", he said it was "for the people of this to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman", the veteran opposition Labour MP who chaired the seven-person committee. — AFP
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