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India on Wednesday reported a new record for the number of deaths from COVID-19 in one day, which topped the 4,500 mark for the first time.
With a total of 4,529 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to India’s health ministry, the global tally stands at 283,248 since the start of the pandemic, data that only the United States and Brazil surpass.
These numbers contrast with the daily positives on the last day, 267,334, which show a downward trend in the Asian country, already far from historic highs of 400,000 per day a few weeks ago.
However, the trends in deaths are usually within a few weeks of infections, so these are expected to remain at high levels before starting to reflect the decline in the latter.
Meanwhile, the number of deaths over short periods continues to overwhelm the country’s mortuary infrastructure to the point where Prayagraj, a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, police urged people not to leave bodies in rivers after dozens of bodies were found in shallow graves in the sand on the banks of the Ganges. “We are here to help them perform the funeral rites,” officers said.
The rains of the past few days have exposed the shrouds that covered several bodies in shallow graves. Although they are not confirmed as victims of COVID-19, the barrage of deaths has prompted authorities to link the pandemic to the results..
In absolute terms, the number of infections in India stands at a total of 25.4 million since the virus was detected in the country, a number of infections that only exceeds the United States, with around 33 million cases.
Over 25% of deaths have been reported in the western state of Maharashtra, the most affected by the pandemic, which exceeded the threshold of one thousand deaths per day (1,291) while the number of cases was 28,438, data which contrasts with the 65,000 which had just been recorded during the peak of infections.
Data from New Delhi shows signs of recovery, with positive cases remaining below 5,000 per day and 265 deaths.
The gradual decline in cases comes after weeks of record levels that sparked the health collapse and supply shortages that catalyzed the mobilization of international aid from more than 40 countries.
Although everything seems to indicate that the worst of this second wave has already passed, the experts warn these figures do not show the reality of the pandemic in the country and could be much higher, especially taking into account that in rural areas there are no laboratories to perform tests or resources to treat severe patients.
Sponsored as “the biggest vaccination campaign in the world” remains the only hope of alleviating the country’s data: So far, a total of 186 million doses have been administered, including 1.3 in the last day.
However, just over 3% of the population received the two doses of Covishield from AstraZeneca, which is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (IBS); Covaxin, from the Indian laboratory Bharat Biotech; or the Russian vaccine Spuntnik V, of which 150,000 sera have arrived.
This average number of daily vaccinations still does not guarantee the initial target set by the Indian authorities at the start of the program last January, in which it was planned to vaccinate 300 million people before July.
(With information from EFE, photos by AP)
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