INDIA RECORDS OVER 4,000 COVID-19 DEATHS FOR 2ND DAY IN ROW

Sun 09 May 2021:

India again reported over 4,000 COVID-19 fatalities in a single day, taking the country’s death toll to 242,362, according to the data released by the Health Ministry on Sunday.

New Delhi has struggled to contain the outbreak, which has overwhelmed its healthcare system, and many experts suspect the official death and case numbers are a gross underestimate.

India reports another 400,000+ cases, 4000+ death day

A sustained level of horribleness

And its not correct

True number surely closer to 25,000 deaths, 2-5 million infections today

Lots of ways to estimate but here’s a simple one

Look at the crematoriums

Thread

— Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) May 9, 2021

The country recorded 403,738 new coronavirus cases, 386,444 discharges, and 4,092 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said.

The number of active cases crossed 3.7 million and 18.3 million people have recovered, the figures showed.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, the country conducted a total of 1,865,428 tests for COVID-19 over the past day.

A consignment of oxygen generators and 1,000 ventilators arrived from the UK. Each generator has a capacity to produce 500 liters of oxygen per minute, enough to treat 50 people at a time, said an official statement by the Foreign Ministry.

Many Indian states have imposed strict lockdowns over the past month to stem the surge in infections while others have announced restrictions on public movement and shut down cinemas, restaurants, pubs and shopping malls.

But pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce a nationwide lockdown similar to the one imposed during the first wave last year.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported that a forum of scientific advisers set up by the government had warned Indian officials in early March of a new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus taking hold in the country. Four of the scientists told Reuters that the federal government did not seek to impose major restrictions to stop the spread of the virus despite their warnings.

The government allowed Hindu religious festivals participated in by millions while Prime Minister Modi, leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition politicians held political rallies for regional elections. These events, experts said, turned out to be “super-spreaders”.

Meanwhile, the Indian Supreme Court on Saturday set up a 12-member National Task Force (NTF) to facilitate a public health response to COVID-19 “based on scientific and specialized domain knowledge.”

The NTF will specifically address issues relating to streamlining of oxygen allocation to different states, review and suggest measures to ensure availability of essential drugs and medicines, and adopt remedial measures to ensure preparedness for future emergencies.

The court said the establishment of such a task force will enable the decision-makers to have inputs that go beyond finding ad-hoc solutions to present problems.

The country has been struggling with a deadly second wave that has severely strained its health system, leading to shortages of oxygen supplies at hospitals as well as beds and coronavirus treatment drugs such as Remdesivir.

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