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A30 world news
Diahuebs 20 Mei 2021

India sets global record for daily coronavirus deaths

(AP) — India on Wednesday reported more Murad Banaji, a mathematician modeling India’s
coronavirus deaths in a single day than any While megacities such as Mumbai and New Delhi cases.
other country at any time during the pan- have seen signs of improvement in recent days,
demic, while infections continued to spread there is concern that the virus is spreading through In many parts of Uttar Pradesh, people are dying of
through vast rural areas with weak health sys- the vast countryside where a majority of the people fever and breathlessness even before getting tested
tems. live and where health care and testing are limited. for coronavirus. Crematoriums have run out of
wood and hundreds of bodies are washing up on
The Health Ministry reported a record 4,529 deaths The situation is particularly alarming in Uttar the banks of the Ganges River.
in the past 24 hours, driving India’s confirmed fa- Pradesh, India’s most-populous state with 200 mil-
talities to 283,248. It also reported 267,334 new in- lion people, where a court Monday said citizens “The villagers often ignore fever and body ache.
fections, as daily cases remained below 300,000 for have been left “at God’s mercy.” Even though new Before the relatives can understand what is hap-
the third consecutive day. The numbers are almost cases have been declining over the past week, the pening, the patient dies,” said Raja Bhaiya of the
certainly undercounts. state has more than 136,000 confirmed active in- nonprofit group Vidya Dham Samiti, which works
fections. to raise awareness about the pandemic in the state’s
The previous record for most daily deaths from the Banda district.
coronavirus was set on Jan. 12 in the United States, Government officials are racing to limit the spread
when 4,475 people died, according to data from of the virus in the state’s villages. Teams have Bhaiya said the “only testimony of death in the vil-
Johns Hopkins University. reached nearly 90,000 villages and the virus has lage is the cries of women and children, and these
been detected in about 21,000 of them, the Press cries are very frequent now.”
With over 25 million cases since the pandemic be- Trust of India news agency cited senior health of-
gan, India’s confirmed infections are second only ficial Amit Mohan Prasad as saying. India’s vaccination drive is also faltering just at the
to the U.S. time when it is needed the most. The number of
Health experts say the true extent of the virus is daily administered doses has fallen by about half
Experts say new infections in India, which had hard to gauge, in part because of weak data, and over the last six weeks, from a high of 4 million a
been rising steeply, may finally be slowing. But that the government response has come too late. day on April 2 to around 2 million or less this week.
deaths have continued to rise and hospitals are still
crowded with patients. Over the last month, In- “The national story hid what was going on in rural Many states say they don’t have enough vaccine to
dia’s COVID-19 fatalities have jumped six-fold. India and it continues to be fairly invisible,” said administer.

Malawi destroys 20,000 expired doses of AstraZeneca vaccine

India with a very short shelf have still been damaged in to 0.04 new cases per 100,000
life. But this week, WHO re- one way or the other,” he people on May 18. Official
versed its position and said said. deaths from COVID-19 are
that the vaccines should be also declining, according to
destroyed. The destruction of the vac- statistics from Johns Hopkins
cines was witnessed by sev- University.
“Any vaccine that has passed eral top officials “in order
its expiry date ... should not to enhance transparency,” Malawi, like many other Af-
be administered,” said WHO health secretary Charles rican countries, has relied
in a statement dated May 17. Mwansambo said. on the AstraZeneca vaccine
“While discarding vaccines that has been distributed
is deeply regrettable in the Malawi will still have ad- by COVAX and the African
(AP) — Malawi has burned used during the vaccination context of any immuniza- equate stocks of COVID-19 Union. But now supplies
nearly 20,000 expired As- campaign,” she said. “On tion program, WHO rec- vaccines in both public and of the vaccine have become
traZeneca vaccines, amid behalf of the government, I ommends that these expired private health facilities, he more scarce because India,
conflicting advice over assure all Malawians that no doses should be removed said. The government has the main supplier of vaccines
what to do with the doses. one will be given an expired from the distribution chain not said where it will get to COVAX, has stopped ex-
COVID vaccine.” and safely disposed.” more vaccines. ports until it has adequately
Health Minister Khumbi- vaccinated large numbers of
ze Kandodo Chiponda put The burned vaccines were WHO said that in March, the Malawi’s got its first consign- its population of 1.4 billion
some of the vials of the ex- the remainder of 102,000 African Union’s African Vac- ment of 360,000 AstraZeneca people.
pired doses into an incinera- doses that arrived in Malawi cine Acquisition Task Team doses in early March from
tor to start the destruction on March 26 with just 18 redistributed 925,000 doses the U.N.-backed COVAX The Serum Institute of India
Wednesday at Kamuzu Cen- days until they expired on of the AstraZeneca vaccine initiative which is providing says it hopes to start deliver-
tral Hospital in Lilongwe, the April 13. All other doses of produced by the Serum In- vaccines to low- and middle- ing coronavirus vaccines to
capital. the shipment, donated by the stitute of India with an expiry income countries. The coun- COVAX and to other coun-
African Union, were success- date of April 13 to 13 African try received another batch tries by the end of the year.
“We are destroying (these fully administered, she said. countries. “The bulk of these of 50,000 AstraZeneca doses The delay will significantly
vaccines) because as gov- vaccine doses were admin- from the Indian government. set back global efforts to im-
ernment policy no expired The health minister thanked istered, but some countries With the AU donation, Ma- munize people against CO-
health commodities are to be WHO, the African Union have unused doses remain- lawi had a total of 512,000 VID-19. India’s Serum In-
used,” she said. “Historically and India for donating the ing,” said the WHO state- AstraZeneca doses. stitute is the world’s biggest
under the expanded immu- vaccines. ment. vaccine-maker. The com-
nization program of Malawi So far 212,615 doses have pany said in March that it
no expired vaccine has ever “This has made it possible Malawi, a small southern been given in Malawi. The was postponing all exports of
been used.” for Malawi to embark on the African country of about 20 country has 34,216 con- coronavirus vaccines to deal
COVID vaccination cam- million people, had already firmed cases, including 1,153 with the explosive surge of
She said burning the vaccines paign currently underway,” decided to destroy its ex- deaths, according to the Af- cases on the subcontinent. At
will build public confidence she said. pired vaccine doses, ministry rica CDC. the time, the World Health
that all vaccines used in Ma- of health spokesman Joshua Organization said it expected
lawi are good. Last month the World Health Malango told The Associated Currently, the country is see- COVID-19 vaccine deliver-
Organization urged African Press. ing a decrease in the disease, ies from India to resume by
“We are destroying publicly nations not to destroy ex- with the 7-day rolling average June and the interruption
in order to stay accountable pired doses of the AstraZene- “We had stopped observation of daily new cases in Malawi would affect about 90 million
to Malawians. The vaccines ca vaccine after several coun- of proper storage mecha- dropping from 0.07 new cases doses.
that expired are not being tries received doses from nisms and the vaccines would per 100,000 people on May 4