Category Archives: India

‘We are not special’: how triumphalism led India to Covid-19 disaster

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Huge surge in cases followed erroneous ‘supermodelling’ study suggesting herd immunity had been achieved

They will be remembered as India’s lost months: the stretch between September and February when Covid-19 cases in the country defied global trends, falling sharply throughout the coldest months of the year until they reached four-figure daily totals.

It was inexplicable. Was it the Indian climate? A protection conferred by childhood immunisations? Some speculated India may have naturally reached herd immunity. It was a tantalising idea that took hold in India’s highest circles of policymaking, media and science – even a government-commissioned study suggested herd immunity may indeed have been achieved. It would prove one of the most fatal miscalculations of the Covid-19 pandemic so far.

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Coronavirus live news: all over 40s in England to be offered jab – as it happened

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This live blog is closed. You can stay up to date with all coronavirus developments below:

We are closing this live blog now. You can stay up to date with all coronavirus developments below:

More now on the vaccine being offered to over 40s in England, via PA Media:

It comes as the latest NHS England figures revealed more than 28.5 million people in England had received their first jab by April 28, nearly two thirds of the adult population.

The data, published on Thursday, also showed that nearly 12 million people had received their second doses, making them fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who received his first coronavirus vaccination at London’s Science Museum on Thursday, said: “The UK’s vaccination programme has been a phenomenal success so far, with more than 47 million doses administered and one of the highest uptake rates in the world.

“Building on this excellent progress we are now opening up vaccinations to 40 and 41 year olds.

“I got my jab yesterday and I urge everybody in these age groups to book a jab as soon as possible to protect yourself and your loved ones from this dreadful disease.”

Mr Hancock and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also announced on Friday that the UK will host a global summit in 2022 alongside a major scientific coalition aimed at supporting plans to accelerate vaccine development in response to any future pandemics.

The summit, which will be in partnership with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi), aims to raise investment from the international community to support the UK and Cepi’s goal of slashing vaccine development time to 100 days - about a third of the time that it took the world to develop a coronavirus jab.

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Border dispute casts shadow over China’s offers of Covid help for India

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Analysis: some in China see India’s crisis as a diplomatic opportunity but tensions from last summer remain high

As coronavirus rages across India, its neighbour China has made repeated offers of help. Some are asking whether this could be an occasion to ease the tense relations between the world’s two most populous countries following last year’s border skirmishes.

China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said this week that Beijing was “ready to provide support and assistance to the Indian people at any time according to the needs of India”. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Delhi said it would “encourage and instruct Chinese companies to actively cooperate”.

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Explainer: why is getting medical oxygen for Covid patients in some countries so difficult?

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As India’s hospitals struggle to keep pace with demand, the pandemic has exposed global market failures, lack of knowledge and anticipation

New waves of the Covid-19 pandemic in countries, such as India and Kenya have exposed the poor management of oxygen supplies. Prof Trevor Duke, editor of the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on oxygen therapy for children, answered questions on what countries with limited resources can do to secure better supplies.

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Arundhati Roy on India’s Covid catastrophe: ‘We are witnessing a crime against humanity’

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It’s hard to convey the full depth and range of the trauma, the chaos and the indignity that people are being subjected to. Meanwhile, Modi and his allies are telling us not to complain

During a particularly polarising election campaign in the state of Uttar Pradesh in 2017, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, waded into the fray to stir things up even further. From a public podium, he accused the state government – which was led by an opposition party – of pandering to the Muslim community by spending more on Muslim graveyards (kabristans) than on Hindu cremation grounds (shamshans). With his customary braying sneer, in which every taunt and barb rises to a high note mid-sentence before it falls away in a menacing echo, he stirred up the crowd. “If a kabristan is built in a village, a shamshan should also be constructed there,” he said.

“Shamshan! Shamshan!” the mesmerised, adoring crowd echoed back.

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Coronavirus live news: India deaths pass 200,000; Poland announces plan to lift lockdown

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India hits another global record; Polish PM announces lifting of lockdown from next week

Chile has designated pregnant women a Covid-19 vaccination priority and this week began issuing Pfizer doses to those with underlying health issues in their second or third trimesters.

Reuters reports:

Chile’s top public health official Paula Daza said women were being inoculated with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine since more information existed about its safety for pregnant women.

An estimated 230,000 will be offered vaccines, with those with health conditions followed by those working in high-risk jobs such as the health and education sectors.

The coronavirus situation is improving in France, prime minister Jean Castex said on Wednesday.

As we reported earlier, president Emmanuel Macron will outline on Friday how restrictions will be progressively relaxed.

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UK sends oxygen concentrators and ventilators to India – but no Covid vaccines

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Foreign Office says Britain ‘first out of the blocks’ with help but Labour calls it a drop in the ocean

The UK has been “the first out of the blocks” with help for India, but will not send vaccines to the Covid-ravaged country until Britain has surplus supplies, the Foreign Office minister Nigel Adams has told MPs.

He said the UK was responding to the Indian government’s needs, and had been the first country to provide practical support “in the face of heartbreaking scenes that had shocked us all”. He said he had friends of Indian heritage who were “at their wit’s end”, and vowed the UK would be at the forefront in providing aid.

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Crematoriums in Delhi forced to build makeshift pyres as India’s Covid crisis intensifies – video

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Warning: Some viewers may find this video distressing

Crematoriums in Delhi have been forced to build makeshift funeral pyres on spare patches of land after being inundated by bodies from the surging Covid-19 crisis sweeping India. 

Crematoriums across the city have been building new platforms after ambulances carrying bodies and grieving families were forced to wait for hours for a funeral pyre.

 The country recorded 300,000 new Covid cases on Tuesday and 2,771 new deaths. However, health experts believe the official toll to be far higher

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Dr Fauci calls for global response as Covid infections surge in India – video

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Dr Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, has said countries have failed to unite to provide an adequate global response to prevent the “tragic” coronavirus outbreak from overwhelming India.

He singled out wealthier nations for failing to provide equitable access to healthcare around the world.

"We’re all in this together. It’s an interconnected world. And there are responsibilities that countries have to each other, particularly if you’re a wealthy country and you’re dealing with countries that don’t have the resources or capabilities that you have,” he said

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Biden hails ‘stunning progress’ on Covid but warns Americans: ‘Do not let up now’ – live

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For Democrats it has been a hundred days of sweeping legislation, barrier-breaking appointments and daring to dream big. For Republicans, a hundred days in the political wilderness.

The party that just four years ago controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress now finds itself shut out of power and struggling to find its feet. As Joe Biden forges ahead with ambitions to shift the political paradigm, Republicans still have a Donald Trump problem.

Related: Republicans still orbiting Trump dark star fail to derail Biden’s first 100 days

Senate Democrats are pushing Biden to admit more refugees into the US.

Biden’s announcement earlier this month that he would not increase refugee admissions from the record low cap of 15,000 that Donald Trump set before leaving office. After intense pushback from advocates and Democratic lawmakers, Biden said he’d increase the cap by 15 May.

Related: Biden walks back refugee admissions policy after outcry and will lift cap in May

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‘Warm, kind, wise and brilliant’: Guardian writers remember Kakoli Bhattacharya

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Our Delhi correspondents pay tribute to the Indian journalist and Guardian news assistant, who has died of Covid

Every Guardian south Asia correspondent over the past decade can remember the first time they met Kakoli Bhattacharya. A smart, brilliant and tenacious journalist, Kakoli joined the Guardian in Delhi in 2009 as an assistant, translator and fixer – but the role she would play in the lives of all the correspondents who worked with her far outstripped her official duties.

On Saturday, Kakoli – who was known to her friends and family as Pui, meaning “birdsong” – died in hospital of Covid-19. She was 51. Her death leaves a great absence. Here, Delhi correspondents past and present share their lasting memories of a much valued colleague and friend.

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Coronavirus live news: more countries tighten travel restrictions for arrivals from India

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Spain and Philippines join Cambodia and Fiji in restricting arrivals; England extends vaccines to those aged 42 and over

Brazil’s congress has launched a parliamentary inquiry into what critics call Jair Bolsonaro’s disastrous and potentially criminal response to a Covid-19 pandemic that has killed nearly 400,000 Brazilians.

The politically charged investigation, which rivals of Brazil’s far-right president hope will torpedo his chances of re-election, will be conducted by 11 of the country’s 81 senators, including several of Bolsonaro’s fiercest opponents.

Related: Brazil begins parliamentary inquiry into Bolsonaro’s Covid response

Children who are hospitalised with coronavirus may be at risk of persistent fatigue and other symptoms of long Covid, according to researchers who examined the health of patients months after they were discharged.

Scientists interviewed the parents of more than 500 children who were admitted to a Moscow hospital with Covid between April and August last year. They found that a quarter had ongoing symptoms more than five months after returning home, with the most common ailments being fatigue, sleep disruption and sensory problems.

Related: Children may be at risk from long Covid symptoms, study finds

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WHO blames ‘perfect storm’ of factors for India Covid crisis

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Health body says mass gatherings, low vaccination rates and more contagious variants all to blame for surge in cases

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said India’s deadly Covid-19 second wave was caused by a “perfect storm” of mass gatherings, low vaccination rates and more contagious variants.

Speaking on Tuesday, WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević warned against blaming mutations of the virus as the sole cause of the tsunami of cases that have engulfed India in recent weeks, pushing the country’s healthcare system to the brink of collapse, and said that complacent behaviour had also played a role.

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India: tearful relatives beg for oxygen and hospital beds for Covid patients – video

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Patients in New Delhi stood in long queues outside hospitals while others waited with oxygen masks in ambulances as India's new coronavirus infections hit a record high for a fifth consecutive day on Monday. Infections in the last 24 hours rose to 352,991, with overcrowded hospitals in Delhi and elsewhere turning away patients after running out of supplies of medical oxygen and beds

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Indian journalist and Guardian news assistant Kakoli Bhattacharya dies from Covid-19

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‘Brilliant and indispensable’ Bhattacharya worked with every south Asia correspondent since 2009

Kakoli Bhattacharya, an Indian journalist who was a researcher, translator, news assistant and friend to Guardian correspondents for more than a decade, has died from Covid-19 in Delhi.

She died on 23 April after being admitted to hospital earlier in the week during a catastrophic second wave of the virus in India that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since it took off in March.

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India reportedly running out of vaccines amid Covid surge

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Government’s plans to ramp up the vaccination programme by the weekend under threat

India is reportedly running out of Covid-19 vaccines just as a virulent second wave continues to devastate the country, threatening the government’s plans to ramp up the vaccination programme by the weekend in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.

From Saturday, everyone in India over the age of 18 will be eligible for a vaccine, a decision made by the government as the virus has brought India’s healthcare system to its knees, with more than new 352,000 cases on Monday and over 2,800 more deaths.

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Mutations, politics, vaccines: the factors behind India’s Covid crisis

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Analysis: experts believe a number of things coalesced to cause the world’s worst coronavirus outbreak

India is now identifying more than 1 million coronavirus cases every three days, with many times more thought to be going unregistered in a vast country where public health surveillance is often poor. Daily deaths exceeded 2,800 on Sunday, but these too are thought to be many times higher.

Epidemiologists and other experts are speculating that several factors have coalesced over the past months to bring India to the point of the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreak.

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India: drone footage shows makeshift mass crematorium in Delhi – video

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Mass cremations have been taking place in the Indian capital, Delhi, in makeshift facilities set up to cope with the huge rise in coronavirus deaths. India recorded another 352,991 new coronavirus cases on Monday, the fifth day of record highs, and 2,812 new deaths, its highest daily figure so far

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Why India’s worsening Covid crisis is a dire problem for the world

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Analysis: Urgent supplies are needed to stem the rampant spread of infections in country of 1.4bn

The catastrophe unfolding in India appears to be the worst-case scenario that many feared from the Covid-19 pandemic: unable to find sufficient hospital beds, access to tests, medicines or oxygen, the country of 1.4 billion is sinking beneath the weight of infections.

The two opposed assumptions of the global response to coronavirus – wealthy countries in the west prioritising vaccines for their own need in one camp, and the argument led by the World Health Organization for global vaccine equality in the other – are also failing to hold as the scale of the crisis in India points to an urgent need to prioritise the response there.

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Covid live: Indian PM Narendra Modi says ‘storm’ of coronavirus infections has shaken country

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Latest updates: Modi urges all citizens to take vaccines and exercise caution after India suffers a fourth straight day of record coronavirus cases

Western Australia’s international arrivals cap for the next month will be halved, officials said on today, as the state is battling a coronavirus outbreak that forced more than two million people into a three-day lockdown from Saturday, Reuters reports.

The lockdown was ordered after a traveller likely became infected while in quarantine in a hotel and unknowingly passed it on to two other people in the community.

Australia closed its borders more than a year ago and allows mostly only its citizens and permanent residents to return. All, except from New Zealand, must undergo two weeks of mandatory hotel quarantine at their own expense.

A Spanish man with Covid symptoms who coughed on work colleagues and told them “I’m going to give you all the coronavirus” has been charged with intentionally causing injury after allegedly infecting 22 people, AP reports:

Spanish police said their investigation began after a coronavirus outbreak at the company where the 40-year-old man worked on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.

Days before the outbreak, the man showed Covid symptoms but refused his colleagues’ suggestions to go home and self-isolate, police said in a statement.

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