A woman undergoes a rapid antigen test for the virus in the Dharavi slum in Mumbai, March 24, 2021.
As India’s Epidemic heats up, the government is struggling to cope with a record number of new cases and deaths in a single day this year, while announcing the discovery of a new “double mutant variant of the virus”, adding to concerns about the outbreak. For this reason, India may delay the supply of AZ vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) in March and April, and switch to domestic needs.
Since September last year, the number of confirmed cases in India has plummeted and people’s lives have gradually returned to normal, but the epidemic has been heating up since last month, with more than 47,262 confirmed cases and 275 deaths in the past 24 hours, the highest number of deaths in a single day in more than four months. The cumulative number of confirmed cases reached 11.7 million and deaths reached 160,441.
The outbreak has led to a ban on Holi celebrations in New Delhi, Mumbai, Gujarat, and other parts of the country, and the Indian Civil Aviation Authority has announced an extension of the ban on international flights until April 30.
A health worker tests a man at a roadside tent in Ahmedabad, March 24, 2021.
Indian health officials say the discovery of a tricky new variant of a double mutation of the virus in the country, along with variants from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil, has added to concerns about the development of the epidemic in India as the number of new diagnoses and deaths from the epidemic are at record highs in a single day.
Reuters reports that India has temporarily put on hold all major exports of AstraZeneca vaccine, produced by the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India, to meet domestic demand as the outbreak heats up.
In the vaccine global access mechanism (COVAX) to take on the role of procurement and distribution of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is negotiating with the Indian government to ensure that the supply of low-income economies involved in COVAX can be shipped as soon as possible.
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