India reported a global record of more than 314,000 new infections Thursday as a grim coronavirus surge in the world's second-most populous country has overwhelmed a fragile health care system.
The new cases raise India’s total past 15.9 million cases, second to the US.
A large number of hospitals across the country have complained of an acute shortage of beds, medicines and oxygen.
The New Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered the government to divert the oxygen supply from industrial use to hospitals. Responding to a petition by a New Delhi hospital seeking their intervention, the judges said: "Beg, borrow or steal, it is a national emergency."
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The government is rushing oxygen tankers to replenish hospitals.
The Times of India newspaper said the previous highest daily case count of 307,581 was reported in the US on January 8th.
It comes as 22 coronavirus patients have died in western India on Wednesday after a leaking oxygen tank was shut down at a government-run hospital, as the country’s healthcare system unravels under a relentless second wave of infections.
Officials said the oxygen supply at the Zakir Husain hospital in Nashik district in Maharashtra state, 166km north of Mumbai, was stopped for half an hour due to the leak, killing patients who were on ventilators.
"The situation is very critical," Dr Kirit Gadhvi, president of the Medical Association in the western city of Ahmedabad, told Reuters. "Patients are struggling to get beds in COVID-19 hospitals. There is especially acute shortage of oxygen."
"We never thought a second wave would hit us so hard," Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the executive chairman of Biocon & Biocon Biologics, an Indian healthcare firm, wrote in the Economic Times. "Complacency led to unanticipated shortages of medicines, medical supplies and hospital beds."
Greece
Greece says its tourism services will open on May 15th when a ban on travel between different regions of the country will also be lifted.
Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis made the announcement in a televised address on Wednesday, adding that restaurants and cafes will be allowed to reopen outdoor areas from May 3rd.
Restrictions, many of which have been in effect since early November, will remain in place over Orthodox Easter on May 2nd.
“Our goal is to have a safe Easter and a free summer. But one cannot undermine the other,” Mr Mitsotakis said.
“That’s why we should not travel at Easter. Athens and other cities still have many Covid cases. Mass movement carries the risk of spreading the virus everywhere.”
Despite the lockdown, Greece has struggled to contain a flare-up in cases that started in late January, and its mortality rate remains above the European Union average. The cumulative death toll reached 9,713 on Wednesday.
Tourism is a key industry for the Greek economy, and travel receipts last year sank by more than 75 per cent from 2019, dropping from €18.2 billion to €4.3 billion.
The slump, together with the impact of domestic lockdown measures, helped push Greece into recession, with gross domestic product plummeting by 8.2 per cent last year.
On Monday, Greece lifted quarantine restrictions for travellers from EU member states, the US, the UK, the United Arab Emirates, Serbia, Israel, and non-EU members Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland which are part of a European travel pact.
Travellers from those countries are no longer subject to a seven-day quarantine requirement.
Easter is considered the most important religious holiday in the predominantly Orthodox Christian country and is often celebrated with relatives in rural ancestral homes.
After the holiday, schools will reopen on May 10th for grades 1 to 9. Students in the final three grades returned to class on April 12th.
Italy
Italy’s national unity government on Wednesday approved a decree easing Covid-19 curbs but the rightist League party abstained, complaining restrictions on business and movement had not been relaxed enough.
The government of former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi has laid down a timetable for reopening most of the long-shuttered activities and permit travel between Italy's 20 regions.
Limitations will be lifted gradually and some will remain in place, however, including a nationwide 10pm curfew which the League and regional governors had asked to be put back to 11pm.
"We could not vote for a decree that continues to impose closures, curfews, limitations," League leader Matteo Salvini said in a statement.
Pressure on hospitals has eased slightly in recent days in Italy, where some 118,000 people have died of Covid-19, the second highest tally in Europe after Britain, and hundreds of fatalities are reported every day.
Both the 5-Star Movement and the centre-left Democratic Party have criticised the League for failing to stay united on the issue.
“This government was created to boost national cohesion. Today the unity of our decisions has been called into question,” 5-Star Movement party sources said.
From April 26th, Italy will reinstate a four-tier, colour-coded system to calibrate curbs in its 20 regions which had been paused in mid-March to enforce the toughest red or orange zones nationwide due to a rise in coronavirus cases.
Restaurants and bars will be allowed to serve clients at outside tables in yellow and white regions, where cinemas, theatres and concert halls will also reopen with attendance limits, a government statement said.
In addition, Italians who have recovered from coronavirus or have been vaccinated will be eligible for a six-month “green pass” for regional travel, while those who show a negative test will receive a 48-hour certificate.
Until now, movement to and from red and orange regions was allowed only for work, health reasons or emergencies.
Open-air swimming pools will reopen from May 15th in the low infection areas, the government statement says, while gyms will restart on June 1st. – Reuters/AP