Fresh coronavirus waves showed no sign of abating on Saturday as devastating surges in India and Brazil pushed daily infections and deaths to record levels.
New daily cases in India topped 400,000 for the first time, the highest for any nation, as countries rushed supplies of oxygen and medical goods to the world’s second-most populous country.
Despite the rollout of vaccines in many countries, Covid is still wreaking destruction around the world, with close to 3.2 million lives lost and known infections soaring past 150 million.
Asia has recorded the bulk of new cases, driven largely by the surge in India. The crushing outbreak, which now accounts for more than 40% of the world’s new infections, has overwhelmed the South Asian nation’s healthcare system and depleted critical oxygen supplies.
Authorities on Saturday opened India’s massive vaccination programme to all adults, but many states do not have enough doses to meet demand despite a freeze on exports of shots produced locally.
“There are so many people that are getting sick. … We just wanted to be here as soon as possible,” said Aadya Mehta, 25, who joined a queue of around 100 people outside a hospital in New Delhi.
The Indian capital will stay in lockdown for another week because of the surge in Covid cases, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said.
According to health ministry data released on Saturday, New Delhi recorded 27,000 new cases and 375 deaths. But with tests recording a positivity rate of almost 33%, experts suspect the real numbers are much higher.
India needs to shut down the country for a few weeks to control the outbreak, Anthony Fauci, one of the leading global voices on the pandemic, told the Indian Express newspaper in an interview.
A US military aircraft carrying more than 400 oxygen cylinders, other hospital equipment and nearly one million rapid coronavirus tests arrived in New Delhi on Friday.
Another vast nation struggling to inoculate as many people as possible in the face of a destructive spike is Brazil, which has one of the world’s highest mortality rates at 189 deaths per 100,000 people.
It reported nearly 2,600 new coronavirus deaths on Friday, bringing the total for April to 82,266 — the second consecutive monthly record and a sharp rise from March.
The surge has pushed Brazil’s hospitals to the brink of collapse in many areas as the country’s death toll crossed 400,000 this week.
Demonstrators from the human rights group Rio de Paz lowered Brazilian flags and mock body bags into symbolic graves at Rio de Janeiro’s famous Copacabana beach on Friday, protesting the government’s handling of the crisis.
“Those body bags represent the Brazilians who had to be buried in shallow graves,” said Antonio Carlos Costa, the group’s president.
“They died without the slightest dignity.”
In other developments:
Singapore said it would reinstate some social distancing controls and tighten borders with countries that are seeing a persistent rise in cases.
That will include mandatory 14-day quarantine in dedicated facilities for all travellers from Thailand, the health ministry said.
Visitors and long-term pass holders from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be barred from entering or transiting through Singapore from Sunday. In addition, all travellers from these countries will have their quarantine extended to 21 days.
In Europe, Russia began a 10-day unplanned “holiday” to try to tame a third wave of the pandemic.
In the United Kingdom, holidaymakers and airlines could get as little as one week’s notice of the rules to allow overseas travel from England this month, The Guardian newspaper reported.
The government is expected to confirm that the non-essential foreign travel ban will be lifted from May 17, but the list of countries to which travel will be permitted may not be released until May 10.
Thanks to vaccinations, some other European governments have also eased or are considering relaxing coronavirus restrictions, including France and Belgium.
The World Health Organization, meanwhile, cleared the Moderna Covid shot for emergency use, making it the fifth vaccine to receive its green light. It recommended the inoculation for all age groups 18 and above.
The WHO has also listed the Pfizer shot, the AstraZeneca vaccines made by SK Bio and the Serum Institute of India, as well as the Johnson & Johnson shot.
In the United States, the White House said 100 million people had been fully vaccinated, and more than 55% of American adults had received at least one dose.
The huge effort has meant coronavirus restrictions in many parts of the United States can be eased.
Fans wearing Mickey Mouse ears lined up at Disneyland in California as it finally reopened, more than 400 days after the pandemic forced its closure.
“It is the greatest feeling ever,” said Momi Young-Wilkins, a 55-year-old mother as she brought her children to the world-famous park near Los Angeles.