NEW DELHI (AP) – India on Wednesday reported a record daily increase in new coronavirus cases for the second time in four days, while New Delhi, Mumbai and dozens of other cities announced they were putting out extinguishers to try to slow infections growing.
The increase of 115,736 cases of coronavirus reported in the last 24 hours exceeds 103,844 infections reported on Sunday. Deaths have risen by 630 in the last 24 hours, the highest since November, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to 166,177 since the pandemic began.
The federal government has so far refused to impose a nationwide blockade to contain the latest increase, but has asked states to decide on the imposition of local restrictions.
“The pandemic is not over and there is no possibility of satisfaction,” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Twitter. He urged people to get vaccinated.
India now has an average of seven days of more than 78,000 cases a day and has reported 12.8 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, the largest after the United States and Brazil.
While 85 million Indians received at least one coronavirus vaccine, only 11 million of them received both.
Due to the increase in infections, India has now delayed exports of large quantities of vaccines. To date, it has delivered 64.5 million doses.
Experts say the increase, which is worse than last year’s peak in mid-September, is partly due to growing neglect of social distance and wearing a mask in public spaces.
As health officials continue to warn of rallies in public places, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party leaders continue to hold giant rallies in several states where local elections are taking place.
While on the route of the campaign on Tuesday in the state of West Bengal, Modi was seen waving from his car to the maskless supporters.
His government has also allowed a huge one-month Hindu festival that draws tens of thousands of followers daily to the banks of the Ganges River in northern Uttarakhand.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
– North Korea continued to claim a perfect record in coronavirus avoidance in its latest report to the World Health Organization. At the beginning of the pandemic, North Korea described its efforts to preserve the virus as a “matter of national existence.” It closed its borders, banned tourists and eliminated diplomats. The country continues to severely limit cross-border trafficking and has quarantined tens of thousands of people with symptoms. But he still says he has not found any cases of COVID-19, a very dubious statement. In an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday, Edwin Salvador, the WHO representative in North Korea, said the north reported testing 23,121 people for coronavirus from the start of the pandemic until April 1 and that all results been negative. Salvador said the north said 732 people had been tested between March 26 and April 1. WHO officials say the North no longer provides the UN agency with the number of people it quarantines with suspected symptoms.
– South Korea has reported 668 new cases of coronavirus, the biggest daily jump in three months, as concerns about another wave and a slow release of the vaccine increase. The numbers released on Wednesday by the Korean Agency for Disease Control and Prevention brought the number of cases to 106,898, including 1,756 deaths. Most of the new cases have been in the Seoul area and other major cities. Officials have previously insisted that a wait-and-see approach is feasible with the launch of vaccines in South Korea, as the nation’s outbreak has not been as severe as those in America and Europe. Now, they say they are considering all possible measures to prevent a shortage and it remains to be seen whether they would consider reducing exports of AstraZeneca photos produced by local company SK Bioscience.
– In the face of criticism for the launch of a delayed vaccine, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison notes that his country is facing difficulties in obtaining promised doses of vaccine in Europe. He said more than 3 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine in Australia had not yet arrived – but this should not be taken while criticizing the European Union. “It simply came to our notice then. It’s not a dispute. It is not a conflict. It’s not an argument. It’s not a collision. It’s just a simple fact. And I’m just explaining to the Australian public that supply issues are what are constraining and restricting, especially in recent months, the general launch of the vaccine, “Morrison told Canberra reporters. He said he would write to the European Union and AstraZeneca again asking them to send the full order of vaccine doses. Morrison said some of the doses will be sent to help its neighbor Papua New Guinea cope with its virus outbreak. In March, Europe stopped about 250,000 vaccines going to Australia due to concerns about a lack of European supply.
– Nepal resumed administration of vaccines against COVID-19 on Wednesday with vaccines donated by China. The Himalayan nation began its vaccination campaign in January with AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured by the Serum Institute in India, but had to suspend it after India cut off supplies. China has donated 800,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine that was flown last month. India first donated 1 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, and Nepal bought another 2 million from the company. However, only 1 million was provided and the delivery of the other half was delayed by the company.