Explosion of infections in India: more than 260 thousand cases …

India reported this sunday a record 261,500 cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours. The peak occurred in the middle of a sharp increase that started after the reopening of schools and universities and it could further exacerbate the global shortage of vaccines against the disease.

India produces more than 60% of all vaccines sold worldwide and home to the biopharmaceutical company Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer.

Millions of people are waiting to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in India. That’s why some states have reported severe shortages of the disease vaccines and demanded that the government take action.

Her second wave started last month after of the reopening of schools and universities and quickly overtook the first, which peaked last September, with more than 97,000 infections per day.

Cities and states across the country have imposed new restrictions, in particular curfews and the interruption of face-to-face lessons.

In less than a week, the country added 1 million cases. Last Thursday it passed 14 million, which exceeded Brazil as the second country with the most infections, behind United States.

The Ministry of Health also reported that 261,500 new cases and 1,501 deaths had been recorded in the last 24 hours. The portfolio said the country had accumulated 14.7 million infected people and 177,150 deaths.

More than a third of the 1.8 million active cases – 649,563 – are concentrated in Maharastra state, one of five that has reported missing coronavirus vaccines, the ministry said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting on Saturday to take stock of the situation. “Prime Minister spoke about the need to use the full potential of India’s pharmaceutical industry to meet the growing demand for various drugs, ”according to a statement released last night by the government.

Ahead of the meeting, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called the situation “very serious and worrying”, before warning that the city was running out of beds, oxygen and medicine. “Any health infrastructure has its limits,” he warned the population in a video.