In India, more than 100,000 new CoV infections were recorded in one day for the first time. That is based on figures from the Indian Ministry of Health today. The richest state of Maharastra with the financial metropolis of Mumbai is particularly hard hit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned of an alarming rise in cases over the weekend.
Nevertheless, many people are living again as if there was no longer a pandemic. There are also major election rallies ahead of the general election in several states. Hundreds of thousands of Indians flock to the holy river Ganges for the great pilgrimage festival Kumbh Mela – often without masks, as photos show. Virus mutations could also contribute to the increase. At the beginning of the year there were sometimes fewer than 10,000 recorded cases in one day, at the previous high level last summer it was sometimes almost 100,000 per day.
India’s vaccination campaign is currently well behind the government’s goal of vaccinating 300 million of the more than 1.3 billion people in the country by summer. Since the vaccination started in January, 79 million doses have been administered. India is also considered to be the world’s pharmacy. The country produces a lot of vaccine for export. But in view of the rapidly increasing number of cases in the country, this has now been restricted. This also affects the UNO Covax initiative, which is supposed to supply poorer countries with vaccination doses.
