NEW DELHI: India’s total coronavirus cases have surged past the 25 million mark today (Tuesday) as cyclone Tauktae complicated the health crisis in one of the states where the disease is spreading most quickly.
According to details, India becomes the world’s second nation after the United States to pass the grim milestone. The country’s total case load is now at 25.23 million, while the death toll is at 278,719, according to health ministry data.
Though the official count shows new infections subsiding, there are fears that the new, highly infectious B.1.617 variant, is running out of control and many cases, particularly in rural areas, are going unreported due to lack of testing.
Covid-19 tests were administered to 200,000 people evacuated from coastal districts of the western state of Gujarat before the cyclone struck late on Monday. “Masks have been arranged for people shifted to shelter homes,” said a top official in Ahmedabad.
The storm complicated efforts to tackle the coronavirus in the state as vaccinations were suspended for two days, while hospitals awaited back-up generators to keep power running and additional oxygen supplies.
In Maharashtra state, which was sideswiped by the cyclone on Monday, 1,000 coronavirus deaths were reported overnight. The infection rate in Maharashtra has soared 15pc in the last two weeks.
The pace of vaccination in Maharashtra has fallen 30 percent since peaking in early April, according to data from the government’s Co-WIN portal.
Earlier on Monday, US President Joe Biden announced that his administration would send at least 20m more Covid-19 vaccine doses abroad by the end of June.
