Covid-19 Wrap-up: India sees highest rise in single-day deaths

India's ongoing battle with the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic has raised many questions -- action taken, or the lack of it, by those in power; state of our crumbling healthcare infrastructure; the efficacy of vaccines. The latest question to be added to this list is over India's "real death toll".

India's toll passed 2,50,000 on Wednesday, but comparisons of official data with those on the frontlines suggested that the true number is several times higher. Across the vast nation, the devastating Covid-19 wave has overwhelmed hospitals with patients and crematoriums with bodies, and many coronavirus deaths are not being properly recorded as such.

The country saw its highest rise in single-day Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday. New infections increased, compared to the previous day, but have remained off record highs for three days now. The single-day rise in new coronavirus infections in India is at 3,48,421, taking the total tally to 2,33,40,938, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday at 8 am. The toll climbed to 2,54,197, with 4,205 fresh fatalities.

Interestingly, the number of new coronavirus infections in India has peaked, according to a new tracker developed by researchers at Cambridge Judge Business School and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. “But there is substantial variation among states and union territories in their trajectories, with cases continuing to increase over the next two weeks in areas such as Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Tripura,” the researchers wrote.

The central government on Wednesday strongly opposed the use of the term 'Indian Variant' for the B.1.617 variant, saying this classification was not made by the World Health Organization. WHO South-East Asia also issued a statement, saying it does not identify viruses or variants with names of countries they are first reported from. Growing clamour for a crackdown on use of the phrase “Indian variant” has been building on social media as well, with Twitter users drawing parallels to the racist undertones that many critics had identified in using the term “Wuhan virus” in the early days of the pandemic.

In Delhi, the cases and positivity rate have come down with the number of tests sliding by around 20-25,000, but deaths continue to hover over 300 a day while the city government has opened a battlefront with the Centre over supply of vaccines. The national capital is still in lockdown, which was imposed on April 20, but this week it was made more stringent with the shutting down of Metro services and banning of marriage functions in public places.

Karnataka Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar candidly said "not days, it could take months" when asked about the state receiving three crore Covid-19 vaccine doses for which it has placed orders. Due to shortage of vaccines, all available doses will be given to those aged above 45 years due for their second dose. Hospitals and public health centres in Bengaluru are turning away people with confirmed prior appointments for vaccination, citing "vaccine shortage".

The Karnataka Common Entrance Test (K-CET) 2021 has also been postponed. The K-CET-2021, earlier scheduled to be held on July 7-9, has been now deferred to August 28-30.

Meanwhile, the ground situation in Kerala has turned grim. While hospitals are running out of oxygen, Covid-19 patients are struggling to get hospital beds. The vaccination drive is also progressing slowly, with just 18 per cent of the state’s total population inoculated so far.

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday said if the Union government had started door-to-door vaccination programme for senior citizens a few months ago, the lives of many of them, including prominent persons, could have been saved. The court noted that many foreign countries had already started door-to-door vaccination facilities.

An independent global panel concluded that the catastrophic scale of the Covid-19 pandemic could have been prevented, but a "toxic cocktail" of dithering and poor coordination meant the warning signs went unheeded. The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPPR) said a series of bad decisions meant Covid-19 went on to kill at least 3.3 million people (so far) and devastate the global economy.

The 'rich and famous' of India must brace themselves for this next bit: Maldives has banned travel from South Asia as Covid-19 cases soared on the island nation. "The government of Maldives has decided to temporarily suspend the issuance of tourist visas for travellers originating from South Asian countries -- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka," the tourism ministry said. Bollywood will have to stay home, it seems!