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NEW DELHI: India reported a record 412,262 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday and a record 3,980 daily death toll, as a second wave of infections swamps the health system and spreads from cities into the countryside.
COVID-19 infections have surged past 21 million, with a death toll of 230,168, health ministry data show. Government modelling had forecast a peak in second wave infections by Wednesday.
The World Health Organisation said in a weekly report that India accounted for nearly half the coronavirus cases reported worldwide last week and a quarter of the deaths. Medical experts say the actual figures could be five to 10 times the official tallies.
India’s COVID-19 crisis has been most acute in the capital, New Delhi, among other cities, but in rural areas, home to nearly 70% of India’s people, with limited public healthcare is posing more challenges.
The state of Goa, a hugely popular tourist destination on the western coast, has the highest rate of COVID-19 infections in the country, with up to one in every two people testing positive in recent weeks.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been widely criticised for not acting sooner to suppress the second wave, after religious festivals and political rallies drew tens of thousands of people in recent weeks and became “super spreader” events.
The surge in infections has also coincided with a dramatic drop in vaccinations because of supply and delivery problems, despite India being a major vaccine producer.
In the capital Delhi, fewer than 20 of more than 5,000 COVID-19 ICU beds are free at any one time. The country’s top scientific adviser has warned of a possible third wave of infections.
“Phase 3 is inevitable, given the high levels of circulating virus,” the government’s principal scientific adviser, K. Vijay Raghavan told a news briefing on Wednesday. “But it is not clear on what time scale this phase 3 will occur… We should prepare for new waves.”
India is the world’s biggest vaccine maker and is struggling to produce enough product for the surge in infections. Its two current vaccine producers will take two months or more to boost total monthly output from the current 70 million to 80 million doses.
US President Joe Biden threw his support behind waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines in a move to boost vaccinations worldwide.
