Covid-19 infections and deaths in India held close to record daily highs on Monday. This has led to increasing calls for nationwide lockdown to break the chain of infections.
The 366,161 new infections and 3,754 deaths reported by the health ministry were off a little from recent peaks, taking India’s tally to 22.66 million with 246,116 deaths as hospitals run out of oxygen and beds and morgues and crematoria overflow.
Sunday’s 1.47 million tests for COVID-19 were this month’s lowest yet, data from the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research showed. The figure compared with a daily average of 1.7 million for the first eight days of May.
The number of positive results from the tests was not immediately clear, however.
Pleas for oxygen, hospital beds, ventilators and access to intensive care units have inundated Twitter feeds in India since the crisis worsened in April – as all of the essentials for fighting COVID-19 have been in short supply across the country https://t.co/OhYX4Ydmit pic.twitter.com/u1HaM1iD4O
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 9, 2021
Many states have imposed strict lockdowns over the last month while others have placed curbs on movement and shut cinemas, restaurants, pubs and shopping malls.
But pressure is mounting on the central government to announce a nationwide lockdown once again.
The central government had already faced severe criticism for allowing huge gatherings at Kumbh Mela, and holding large election rallies during the past two months even as cases surged.
“A failure of governance of epic and historic proportions,” Vipin Narang, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, said on Twitter.
Sonia Gandhi has accused the government for abdicating its responsibility by leaving vaccinations to states.
The most important need is to rapidly expand vaccination coverage & ensure that no eligible citizen gets left out. INC stands prepared to work with the Union government in this most important and urgent of tasks: Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi at CWC meeting#COVID19India pic.twitter.com/beqZb55Rwd
— Congress (@INCIndia) May 10, 2021
