BENGALURU: Some Indian states said on Sunday they would extend Covid-19 lockdowns to help contain the pandemic, which has killed more than 270,000 people in the country, as the federal government pledged to bolster vaccine supplies.
The number of deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours in India has risen more than 4,000 for the fourth time in a week, with Sunday’s 311,170 new infections representing the lowest single-day rise in more than three weeks.
Federal health officials warned against any complacency over a “plateauing” in the rise of infections, however, and urged states to add intensive care units and strengthen their medical workforces.
The northern states of Delhi and Haryana extended lockdowns, slated to end on Monday, by a week.
Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the rate of positive cases compared with overall tests carried out had come down to 10% from as high as 30% earlier this month.
“The gains we have made over the past week, we don’t want to lose them. So we are going to extend the lockdown for another week,” Kejriwal told reporters.
The southern state of Kerala, which has previously announced a lockdown extension, also introduced stricter restrictions in some districts on Saturday. It warned that people not wearing masks where required or violating quarantine protocols faced being arrested, with drones used to help identify violators.
The government said it would send an additional 5.1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to states over the next three days.
Even though India is the world’s largest vaccine-producing nation, only 141.6 million people have received at least one vaccine dose, or roughly 10% of its population of 1.35 billion, according to health ministry data.
The country has fully vaccinated just over 40.4 million people, or 2.9% of its population.
India’s supply of vaccine doses should rise to 516 million by July, and more than 2 billion between August to December, boosted by domestic production and imports, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said. The country received 60,000 more doses of the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia on Sunday.
The country’s average vaccination rate over seven days fell to 1.7 million on Sunday, from 1.8 million a week ago, after Maharashtra, the richest state, and Karnataka in the south put the rollout of shots on hold for adults younger than 45. India’s total infections have risen by more than 2 million this week, and deaths by nearly 28,000. Deaths rose by 4,077 on Sunday.
Bodies of Covid-19 victims were found to have been dumped in some rivers, the government of the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh said in a letter seen by Reuters, in the first official acknowledgement of the alarming practice.
Main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted a poster questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s move to exporting and donating vaccines abroad earlier this year instead of meeting the country’s requirements.
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