In India, a crisis is arising with a new Indian COVID variant causing many casualties and chaos in India. Over 200,000 people have died and this number is only continuing to rise. Hospitals are struggling to cope with the masses of people coming in ill with the virus, oxygen is in a critically low supply and the extraordinary number of deaths per day has meant that hundreds of people are being buried every day.
Thursday the 29th of April has been the deadliest day so far, with 3,645 people passing away as a result of the coronavirus. However, the real death toll is thought to be higher. Experts fear that West Bengal could be the next epicentre. Coronavirus cases also rose by 17,000 on Wednesday - a state record.
Less than 10% of India's population have received a Covid vaccination, and vaccine shortages have also been reported in some parts of the country. Although more than 109 million people have received one dose, and over 17 million people have been fully vaccinated after receiving two doses, experts say that India is most likely not going to be able to meet its target of covering 250 million people by July, especially as coronavirus cases continue to surge. Joe Biden has said that the US will help and give vaccines to India however it will still take some time for India to reach its goal and as a result of this cases will continue to rise.
Dr Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization's chief scientist has said that to try and suppress the crisis in India they should “Double down on vaccination as quickly as possible or the virus is going to try and do everything it can to keep on spreading from person to person.” But for now, we can only hope that the situation in India improves quickly.
