India’s third COVID wave warns “inevitable” top scientists warn | Coronavirus pandemic News

A senior scientific adviser to the Indian government has warned that the country will inevitably suffer more waves of the coronavirus pandemic, which is nearly 4,000 people die in the space of a day.

India’s chief scientific adviser Vijay Raghavan warned on Wednesday that even after lowering infection rates, the country should be ready for a third wave.

“Phase 3 is unavoidable because of the high levels of circulating viruses,” he said in a news release.

“But it’s not clear at what stage this Phase 3 will take place … We should be prepared for the new waves.”

India on Thursday registered 412,262 new COVID-19 cases and 3,980 deaths, with 21 billion infections in the world’s second most populous country and a total of 230,168 deaths, according to data from the health ministry.

According to medical experts, the actual figures can be five or 10 times the official calculations. The country has added 10 million cases in just over four months to get the first 10 million after more than 10 months.

The rise in infections has coincided with a dramatic decline in vaccines due to supply and delivery problems, despite India being the leading producer of vaccines.

At least three states, including Maharashtra, the commercial capital of Mumbai, have reported vaccine shortage, close some inoculation centers.

Long queues formed outside the two centers in the western city that still have a supply of vaccines, and some who were waiting asked the police to open their doors earlier.

The government said the production capacity of the Remdesivir antiviral drug used to treat COVID-19 patients has tripled to 10.3 million bottles a month, more than 3.8 million bottles ago.

Daily tests have dropped to 1.5 million, the state said the Indian Medical Research Council said it peaked at 1.95 million on Saturday.

Meanwhile, appearances continue to spread.

As hospitals search for beds and oxygen for a second deadly flood of infections, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a weekly report that half of all reported coronavirus cases worldwide in India last week and a quarter were fatal.

Many people have died in ambulances and car parks waiting for bed or oxygen to deal with the seemingly unstoppable flow of corpses and crematoria.

Overnight, 11 people were killed after pressure dropped on oxygen lines at a hospital near the southern city of Chennai, the Times of India reported on Thursday, reporting similar incidents.

It has been the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi highly criticized for failing to act earlier to suppress the second wave, religious festivals and political rallies have gathered tens of thousands of people in recent weeks and have become “very widespread” events.

The opposition has called for a nationwide shutdown, but the government does not impose it for fear of an economic downturn, even though several states have accepted social restrictions.

In the latest move, the West Bengal state of West Bengal, where voters defeated the Modi party in last week’s elections, suspended local train services and banks and jewelery shops restricted working hours amid steps to curb infections.

In the remote state of Mizoram on the border with Myanmar, the beds in its largest coronavirus hospital are so scarce that all victims of other diseases have been asked to leave, said government official ZR Thiamsanga.

Only three of the 14 fans were still available.

“I think there is a complete shutdown to control the situation,” he told Reuters news agency Aizawl, the state capital.

The central bank on Wednesday called on some banks to give some lenders more time to repay their loans as the crisis threatens the initial economic recovery.

Women mourn for a relative in Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh) on the banks of the Ganges River [Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images]

As the government criticizes patients dying outside hospitals, oxygen and equipment routes have been arriving from the United States, France, Britain, Russia and other countries in recent days.

Two “express oxygen” trains carrying liquid oxygen arrived in the capital New Delhi on Wednesday, railway minister Piyush Goyal said on Twitter. More than 25 trains have distributed oxygen supplies nationwide.

The government says supply is sufficient, but transport problems have hampered distribution.

The National Centers for Disease Control (NCDC) on Wednesday said the UK COVID-19 strain was prevalent in northern India, and the new Indian variant known as B.1.617 was prevalent in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat, reports said.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Moon Societies has called for “urgent” international action to prevent the “aggravation of the human catastrophe” in South Asia.

He highlighted the case in Nepal, where COVID-19 patients are “full and crowded with many hospitals”.

With 57 more cases than a month ago, Nepal is 44 percent positive in tests, he added. People close to the border with India cannot cope with the large numbers who are requiring treatment as only 1% of the population is fully vaccinated.