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Salvage Effort Under Way For Submarine That Sank With 53 Aboard In Bali

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Salvage Effort Under Way For Submarine That Sank With 53 Aboard In Bali" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-04/78d11eag_indonesian-submarine_625x300_25_April_21.jpg" title="Salvage Effort Under Way For Submarine That Sank With 53 Aboard In Bali" /></div>
Pieces of the submarine, including items from inside the vessel, had been retrieved on Saturday.
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Bali:
The hunt for a missing Indonesian submarine with 53 crew turned into a salvage effort Sunday after recovered debris suggested it broke apart as it sank off the coast of Bali.
Warships, planes and hundreds of military personnel had led a frantic search for the KRI Nanggala 402 since it disappeared this week during training exercises, hoping for a miracle rescue before its known oxygen reserves ran out.
But the navy acknowledged Saturday that pieces of the submarine, including items from inside the vessel, had been retrieved.
They declared that it had sunk, effectively ending any chance of finding survivors.
Among the items recovered was a piece of the torpedo system and a bottle of grease used to lubricate periscopes.
They also found a prayer mat commonly used in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation.
The relatives of First Lieutenant Muhammad Imam Adi, a 29-year-old father of a young son, clung to hope.
"My wish for now is that my son and all the crew can be found," Adi's father Edy said from his home on Java island.
"My son had wanted to become a soldier since he was a child. That was his dream."
Risky salvage operation
Authorities have not given an official explanation for the accident, but said that the submarine may have suffered a blackout and left its crew unable to resurface.
Navy chief Yudo Margono discounted an explosion, however, saying Saturday that the evidence suggested the submarine came apart as it was crushed by water pressure at depths of more than 800 metres (2,600 feet) -- well below what the Nanggala was built to withstand.
On Sunday, the search team focused on pinpointing the sub's exact location.
Authorities have warned that any salvage operation would be risky and difficult in the deep waters.
Singapore's MV Swift Rescue -- a submarine rescue vessel -- has arrived to aid in the recovery effort, the navy said Sunday.
Neighbouring Malaysia, as well as the United States, India and Australia, were among the nations helping in the search.
Search vessels, reconnaissance aircraft and submarine rescue ships have been deployed to scour a zone of about 10 square nautical miles (34 square kilometres).
The submarine -- one of five in Indonesia's fleet -- disappeared early Wednesday while it was scheduled to do live torpedo training exercises off Bali.
The crew asked for permission to dive. It lost contact shortly after.
Later, search teams spotted an oil spill where the vessel was thought to have submerged, pointing to possible fuel-tank damage, and a catastrophic accident.
So far, authorities have not commented on questions about whether the decades-old vessel was overloaded, but they have said that the submarine -- delivered to Indonesia in 1981 -- was seaworthy.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
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news world Salvage Effort Under Way For Submarine That Sank With 53 Aboard In Bali

Pieces of the submarine, including items from inside the vessel, had been retrieved on Saturday. Bali: The hunt for a missing Indonesia...

Russia May Ban Putin Critic's Network, T-Shirts Could Be Outlawed Too

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Russia May Ban Putin Critic's Network, T-Shirts Could Be Outlawed Too" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-04/fvvjhgg_navalny-protest_625x300_22_April_21.jpg" title="Russia May Ban Putin Critic's Network, T-Shirts Could Be Outlawed Too" /></div>
Thousands of protesters across Russia take to the streets to call for Alexei Navalny's release. (File)
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Moscow:
A closed-door Moscow court hearing Monday is expected to officially ban the political and anti-corruption networks of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a ruling that would mark the most sweeping attempt to crush the Kremlin's greatest political threat.
The evidence to be used in the case is itself a state secret. Navalny's attorney has been told he will get access to the file shortly beforehand, according to Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov.
If the court sides with the prosecutor's general request - declaring Navalny's political group and his Anti-Corruption Foundation to be extremist organizations - it would put them alongside the Islamic State, al-Qaida and the Taliban in the eyes of Russian authorities.
The rights group Amnesty International said it would be "one of the most serious blows for the rights to freedom of expression and association in Russia's post-Soviet history."
Even selling refrigerator magnets or wearing T-shirts with Navalny's slogan "Russia will be happy" could bring jail time. Navalny's team members could face six years in jail if they continued to work.
Putin foe Navalny once described prison life with dark humor. Now his messages are just dark.
Donating to Navalny's crowdfunded organizations would be akin to supporting terrorists, with penalties of up to 10 years in jail. Retweeting previous videos by Navalny's group, exposing the corruption of Russian politicians and bureaucrats, could also mean prison.
Already, Russian authorities have barred Navalny and many of his allies from contesting elections and made it a crime to call unauthorized protests or repeatedly participate in them. Many have fled into exile to avoid jail.
The court ruling takes to another level President Vladimir Putin's efforts to stamp out Navalny's influence.
Navalny, poisoned by a chemical nerve agent in August and jailed in February, announced an end to a 24-day hunger strike Friday after medical warnings he was facing death. On Wednesday, thousands of protesters across Russia took to the streets to call for Navalny's release.
Opposition activists draw parallels between Putin's increasingly tight grip and Soviet-style rule dominated by security officials and preoccupied with staying in power, amid growing public dissatisfaction over declining real wages and rising food prices.
"It reminds me of Soviet trials when someone was declared a spy or foreign agent and then there would be a secret closed trial," said Zhdanov, director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, who fled the country earlier this year. "Putin is trying to take Russia back into the Soviet past."
Banning the organization as extremist "would open the gate to mass repressions. The authorities really want to destroy us because our activity is now making them vulnerable and they feel it," he said.
Putin and his government see themselves as Russia's true patriots and state media disparages Navalny a "Nazi" paid by foreign powers to ruin the country.
But the struggle underway in Russia is about two competing views of the country: one outward-facing and democratic, the other inward-looking, increasingly isolated and paranoid, forcing some young scientists, computer experts and engineers and others to immigrate to freer countries.
"It would not be safe for our staff and people who work for us to continue. Of course, we would have to reformat certain parts of our activity, but we are not going to stop," said Zhdanov.
Russian flags are stacked in one corner in Navalny's headquarters in Tomsk, the Siberian city where he was poisoned last August - an attack he blames on Russian agents acting on orders from Putin. The Kremlin denies any link.
Head of the regional headquarters Ksenia Fadeyeva, 29, is one of two Navalny Tomsk team members elected to the local council last year. On the wall in the office is a large map with all of the city's electoral districts marked out in pen and numbered.
"I love my country, but I know something is wrong here," she said. "I don't want to just sit here and do nothing. I want to change things."
Police have already raided many of Navalny's regional offices in recent weeks and arrested dozens of staff.
"We all know what risks we are facing. They can bring in new criminal cases or absurd charges. They will do their best to ruin our lives. We understand what might happen, but we cannot think about that too much or we would go crazy," she said.
Fadeyeva did not comment on what could happen if the organization is banned.
Tomsk colleague Andrei Fateyev was sentenced to 30 days in jail over Wednesday's protest in Tomsk.
"It's dangerous in Russia in general, whether you are a businessman or a politician or an activist," said Fateyev in an interview earlier this month.
But he believes "Russia will change."
"The goal of the regime is to hang onto power . . . But I don't believe they have the ability to cement their power, as they are trying to do now," he said.
Maria Alyokhina, a member of the political activist punk rock group Pussy Riot who was jailed for nearly two years over an anti-Putin protest in 2012 in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, said the crackdowns on dissent and jailing activists are now "part of everyday reality" in Russia.
"It happened in small steps, closing everything down," said Alyokhina, who is now under house arrest, is awaiting trial over her role in January protests in support of Navalny. "All these crazy laws on naming [nongovernment organizations] as foreign agents and people as foreign agents, and the huge fines and imprisonment," she added.
Designating Navalny's organizations as extremists "means that if you post a link to them, you can go to jail. What it means is that is that a big part of the country can be jailed. We are all illegal," said Alyokhina, who spent 12 hours a day, six days a week in prison sewing police and army uniforms. "It's Stalin's principle."
One 80-year-old Muscovite who joined a mass protest in support of Navalny on Wednesday feared Russia is heading into a form of authoritarian worse than that of the Soviet era.
After the Soviet Union collapsed, "we expected a brighter future. But we missed the moment when there was openness and this ability to speak up and express your opinion to do something," said Galina, who spoke on the condition that her surname not be used out of fear of repercussions. "Now we have this new control where the secret services are repressing everyone."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/russia-may-ban-alexei-navalnys-activist-network-t-shirts-could-be-outlawed-too-2421300">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/russia-may-ban-alexei-navalnys-activist-network-t-shirts-could-be-outlawed-too-2421300</a>

news world Russia May Ban Putin Critic's Network, T-Shirts Could Be Outlawed Too

Thousands of protesters across Russia take to the streets to call for Alexei Navalny's release. (File) Moscow: A closed-door Moscow...

COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Pass One-Billion Mark As Global Cases Hit New Record

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Pass One-Billion Mark As Global Cases Hit New Record" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-04/2g0vl2r4_vaccine-generic-injection-generic_625x300_15_April_21.jpg" title="COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Pass One-Billion Mark As Global Cases Hit New Record" /></div>
At least 1,002,938,540 doses have been administered in 207 countries and territories. (File)
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Paris:
The number of Covid-19 jabs administered globally surpassed the one-billion mark on Saturday, offering hope after months of pandemic misery, even as the number of coronavirus cases worldwide hit a new daily record, mainly to an explosion of the virus in India.
At least 1,002,938,540 doses have been administered in 207 countries and territories, according to an AFP tally.
Nevertheless, the number of new infections topped 893,000 worldwide on Friday, a new daily record.
And India accounted for more than a third of these, with authorities there announcing 346,786 new cases on Saturday, a record for a single country since the start of the pandemic.
The pandemic has now killed more than three million people worldwide since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019.
And India, with its population of 1.3 billion, has become the new hotspot, with the current surge blamed on a new virus variant and recent "super spreader" public events. The country reported 2,624 new deaths in the past 24 hours.
Overwhelmed by the devastating new surge, the Indian government is scrambling to organise special trains to get oxygen supplies to worst-hit cities.
One "oxygen express" carrying 30,000 litres of oxygen arrived in northern Lucknow at dawn on Saturday, where armed guards were waiting to escort trucks to hospitals.
The Indian air force is also being used to transport oxygen tankers and other supplies around the country and to bring oxygen equipment from Singapore.
Thailand is also grappling with a spiralling caseload.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha said Saturday that more than 1,400 Covid-19 patients are waiting to be admitted to hospital.
"If the outbreak becomes more severe, (the government) may consider reducing hospital quarantine for asymptomatic people from 14 days to 10 days," he said in a move intended to free up hospital beds.
Accelerating rollouts
With the pandemic still showing no sign of slowing, governments around the world are placing their hopes in vaccines.
And worldwide, the number of vaccine doses administered has doubled in less than a month.
Nevertheless, while the majority of poor countries have also started to vaccinate -- mainly thanks to the Covax programme -- inoculation is still largely a privilege of high-income countries, home to 16 percent of the world's population, have administered 47 percent of vaccine doses.
By contrast, low-income countries account for just 0.2 percent of shots so far.
In the US, regulators have approved the re-start of a rollout of Johnson & Johnson vaccines halted over blood clotting concerns.
In Europe, Belgium said Saturday it would authorise the J&J shot for all adults, having already received 36,000 doses and expecting a total of 1.4 million between April and June.
The European Union as a whole said it would have enough vaccines to immunise 70 percent of its adult population by the end of July.
A 91-year-old British grandmother, Margaret Keenan, who on December 8 became the first person in the Western world to get an approved coronavirus vaccine, urged people to get inoculated.
"It really is the best thing I've ever done," she said.
"I'm telling everyone to go and get it... I hope everyone comes forward," she said.
Lockdown protests
But despite the optimism, the threat of the virus remains ever-present, with Germany implementing tougher new lockdown rules, including night curfews and school closures, after the government passed a disputed new law designed to slow infections.
The controversial new rules -- passed this week amid huge protests in Berlin -- will apply in all regions with incidence rates of more than 100 new infections per 100,000 people over the last seven days.
And in Britain, ongoing restrictions are continuing to fuel a great deal of anger.
Huge crowds protested in London on Saturday against Britain's remaining coronavirus restrictions, the mandatory use of masks and the possible introduction of so-called vaccine passports.
Britain began to gradually lift Covid-19 restrictions last month after months of curbs and a successful mass vaccination campaign. Pubs were allowed to serve customers outdoors this month and non-essential shops reopened.
The demonstrators marched along several major arteries, including the main shopping district Oxford Street, with videos and photos showing thousands in attendance.
Hundreds then rallied in Hyde Park late afternoon following the march, an AFP reporter said.
Organisers used various websites and online platform pages to encourage turnout, despite curbs which limit outdoor gatherings to 30 people.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/covid-19-vaccine-doses-pass-one-billion-mark-as-global-cases-hit-new-record-2421282">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/covid-19-vaccine-doses-pass-one-billion-mark-as-global-cases-hit-new-record-2421282</a>

news world COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Pass One-Billion Mark As Global Cases Hit New Record

At least 1,002,938,540 doses have been administered in 207 countries and territories. (File) Paris: The number of Covid-19 jabs adminis...

23 Killed After Fire Breaks Out At Iraq's COVID-19 Hospital

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="23 Killed After Fire Breaks Out At Iraq's COVID-19 Hospital" src="https://i.ndtvimg.com/i/2016-03/baghdad-iraq-police-reuters_650x400_51459236509.jpg" title="23 Killed After Fire Breaks Out At Iraq's COVID-19 Hospital" /></div>
The civil defense told Iraqi state news they rescued 90 people. (Representational)
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Baghdad:
At least 23 people died when a fire broke out Sunday in a coronavirus intensive care unit in the capital of Iraq, a country with long-dilapidated health infrastructure now facing mounting Covid-19 cases.
The explosion was caused by "a fault in the storage of oxygen cylinders", medical sources told AFP.
Iraq's hospitals have been worn down by decades of conflict and poor investment, with shortages in medicines and hospital beds.
On Wednesday, the number of Covid-19 cases in the country surpassed one million, the highest of any Arab state.
In the middle of the night, as dozens of relatives were at the bedsides of the 30 patients in the intensive care unit at Ibn al-Khatib hospital -- reserved for the most severe Covid-19 cases in Baghdad -- flames spread across multiple floors, another medical source said.
Videos on social media showed firefighters trying to extinguish flames at the hospital on the southeastern outskirts of the Iraqi capital, as patients and their relatives tried to flee the building.
Medical and security sources told AFP that 23 people had been killed and some fifty others injured in the blaze.
The civil defence told Iraqi state news they "rescued 90 people out of 120 patients and their relatives" at the scene, but could not give an exact number of the dead and wounded.
Negligence
The fire -- which according to several sources was caused by negligence, often linked to endemic corruption in Iraq -- immediately sparked anger on social media in the country.
Baghdad Governor Mohammed Jaber called on the health ministry "to establish a commission of enquiry so that those who did not do their jobs may be brought to justice".
In a statement, the government's human rights commission said the incident was "a crime against patients exhausted by Covid-19 who put their lives in the hands of the health ministry and its institutions and instead of being treated, perished in flames."
The commission called on Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi to sack Health Minister Hassan al-Tamimi and "bring him to justice".
Kadhemi responded by calling for "an immediate investigation with those in charge at the ministry" and demanded that the "hospital director, head of security and the technical maintenance team be sent to the investigators and not be released until those at fault have been brought to justice".
By the early hours of Sunday, while the civil defence said the fire was under control, the health ministry had not issued any statement or announced how many people had been killed or wounded.
The first cases of Covid-19 appeared in Iraq in February 2020.
The health ministry has since recorded a total of 1,025,288 cases of the disease and 15,217 deaths.
It has said it carries out around 40,000 tests daily from a population of 40 million.
Those patients who can often prefer to source oxygen tanks for treatment at home, rather than go to overcrowded and run-down hospitals.
The country launched its vaccination campaign last month, and has received nearly 650,000 doses of different vaccines -- the majority by donation or through the Covax programme, which is helping lower and middle income nations to procure vaccines.
As of Wednesday, 274,343 people had received at least one dose, the ministry said.
Health authorities have faced an uphill battle to convince Iraqis to get vaccinated, in the face of widespread scepticism over the jab and public reluctance to wear masks since the start of the pandemic.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/23-killed-in-fire-at-iraqs-covid-19-hospital-officials-2421272">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/23-killed-in-fire-at-iraqs-covid-19-hospital-officials-2421272</a>

news world 23 Killed After Fire Breaks Out At Iraq's COVID-19 Hospital

The civil defense told Iraqi state news they rescued 90 people. (Representational) Baghdad: At least 23 people died when a fire broke o...

Joe Biden Recognizes Armenian Genocide, Defying Turkey In Historic Move

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Joe Biden Recognizes Armenian Genocide, Defying Turkey In Historic Move" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-04/7hh5irlg_joe-biden-afp_625x300_07_April_21.jpg" title="Joe Biden Recognizes Armenian Genocide, Defying Turkey In Historic Move" /></div>
Joe Biden became the first US president to use the word genocide for 1915 killings of Armenians. (File)
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Washington:
US President Joe Biden on Saturday recognized the 1915 killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide, a watershed moment for descendants of the hundreds of thousands of dead as he defied decades of pressure by Turkey.
Biden became the first US president to use the word genocide in a statement on the anniversary, a day after informing Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the decision and seeking to limit the furor from the NATO ally.
"We remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring," Biden said.
"We affirm the history. We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated."
The statement is a massive victory for Armenia and its extensive diaspora. Starting with Uruguay in 1965, nations including France, Germany, Canada and Russia have recognized the genocide, but a US statement has been a paramount goal that proved elusive under previous presidents.
Erdogan, in a statement to the Armenian patriarch in Istanbul, said debates "should be held by historians" and not "politicized by third parties."
"Words cannot change or rewrite history," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted moments after Biden's statement. "We will not take lessons from anyone on our history."
Explaining Biden's thinking, an administration official pointed to the Democratic president's vows to put a new priority on human rights and highlighted his outspokenness on systemic racism in the United States. 
Across the world, "people are beginning to acknowledge and address and grapple with the painful historical facts in their own countries. It's certainly something that we are doing here in the United States," the official said.
A century of waiting
As many as 1.5 million Armenians are estimated to have been killed from 1915 to 1917 during the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, which suspected the Christian minority of conspiring with adversary Russia in World War I.
Armenian populations were rounded up and deported into the desert of Syria on death marches in which many were shot, poisoned or fell victim to disease, according to accounts at the time by foreign diplomats.
Turkey, which emerged as a secular republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, acknowledges that 300,000 Armenians may have died but strongly rejects that it was genocide, saying they perished in strife and famine in which many Turks also died.
Recognition has been a top priority for Armenia and Armenian-Americans, with calls for compensation and property restoration over what they call Meds Yeghern -- the Great Crime -- and appeals for more support against Turkish-backed neighbor Azerbaijan.
The Azerbaijani foreign ministry said Biden's statement "distorted the historical facts about the events of 1915" and echoed Turkey's call for the killings to be "studied by historians, not politicians."
Azerbaijan defeated Armenia last year in a war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, in which Ankara backed its ally Baku and which left Armenia traumatized.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan thanked Biden for his "powerful step towards justice and invaluable support to the heirs of the Armenian genocide victims."
In the Armenian capital Yerevan, Taline Nourian, 41, said her people have been waiting for this moment for years.
"We wanted it before Biden," she told AFP. "I think Turkey will be afraid now because all countries are going to start recognizing (the genocide)."
Biden, whose call to Erdogan to inform him of the genocide recognition was their first conversation since the US leader took office three months ago, signaled he hoped to contain the fallout.
They agreed in their call to meet in June on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Brussels, officials said.
Beyond statements, Turkey did not immediately announce any retaliatory steps -- in contrast to angry measures taken over previous Western moves to recognize the genocide.
Tensions have risen sharply with Turkey in recent years over its purchase of a major air defense system from NATO adversary Russia, and its incursions against pro-US Kurdish fighters in Syria.
Turbulent alliance
The US Congress in 2019 voted overwhelmingly to recognize the Armenian genocide, but the Trump administration made clear that the official US line had not changed.
Alan Makovsky, an expert on Turkey at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, said that the 2019 congressional resolution had "no discernible impact" on US-Turkey relations -- and paved the way for Biden to go ahead.
At a pro-Armenia rally in New York on Saturday, the crowd of several hundred included Aram Bowen, 33, whose great-great-grandfather was beheaded by the Ottomans during the massacres.
"Turkey is never going to recognize it as genocide," he said.
"So for us on so many levels, the closest thing to that actually becoming official worldwide, it was when the United States and the president himself acknowledged the genocide."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-president-joe-biden-recognizes-armenian-genocide-of-1915-defying-turkey-in-historic-move-2421269">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-president-joe-biden-recognizes-armenian-genocide-of-1915-defying-turkey-in-historic-move-2421269</a>

news world Joe Biden Recognizes Armenian Genocide, Defying Turkey In Historic Move

Joe Biden became the first US president to use the word genocide for 1915 killings of Armenians. (File) Washington: US President Joe Bi...

A coronavirus surge is overwhelming India’s health care system

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A horrific surge in coronavirus cases in India continued on Saturday, with new cases re-breaking a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/24/india/india-covid-19-record-infections-intl-hnk/index.html">single-day world record</a> as the country’s health care system struggled to keep up. But even as hospitals and crematories become overwhelmed and the country faces a significant <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/18/22390493/india-vaccine-shortage-export-ban-covid-19">vaccine shortage</a>, mass public events continue unrestricted, and the Indian government is <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/twitter-blocking-tweets-india">censoring tweets</a> critical of its pandemic response.
The country reported almost 347,000 new cases over a 24-hour stretch, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/asia/india-coronavirus-cases.html#cases">according to the New York Times</a>, setting a new worldwide high for the third day in a row. Deaths also climbed, to a record 2,624 in a single day, and the rolling seven-day average of daily new cases in India is quickly approaching 300,000.
As a result, hospitals are starting to run out of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-india-hospital/two-to-a-bed-in-delhi-hospital-as-indias-covid-crisis-spirals-idUSKBN2C21OT">beds</a> and <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/amp/coronavirus-outbreak/story/delhi-running-out-of-oxygen-high-court-asks-centre-to-take-urgent-steps-1793174-2021-04-20?__twitter_impression=true">oxygen</a> alike. In Delhi Saturday, one hospital network even announced that it was suspending admissions, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-daily-coronavirus-cases-climb-new-world-record-hospitals-buckle-2021-04-24/">according to Reuters</a>, while elsewhere patients have been forced to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-india-hospital/two-to-a-bed-in-delhi-hospital-as-indias-covid-crisis-spirals-idUSKBN2C21OT">share a hospital bed</a>.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This is not a curve or a wave. It's a rocket. A straight vertical line.
If this is a bad COVID variant causing this, it will be prudent for all countries to help India with vaccines and raw materials for vaccines.
I'm not aware of the details. I just hope we do the right thing <a href="https://t.co/kdBeMU87AI">pic.twitter.com/kdBeMU87AI</a>
— Vincent Rajkumar (@VincentRK) <a href="https://twitter.com/VincentRK/status/1385723980770955268?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 23, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Shortages have grown so bad that hospitals have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/india-hospitals-oxygen-tanks-coronavirus-surge-eeed59f1a8574e34353c046ca80419b1">resorted to using Twitter</a> to plead for more oxygen. At least 20 patients in a Delhi hospital died Friday, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/24/india/india-covid-19-record-infections-intl-hnk/index.html">according to CNN</a>, after additional oxygen supplies were delayed.
“The volume is humongous,” Jalil Parkar, a senior pulmonologist at the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/21/india/india-covid-hospital-shortage-intl-hnk/index.html">told CNN</a>. “It’s just like a tsunami.”
The death toll has also begun to overwhelm crematories, raising concerns that, as bad as the official figures are, the true situation in India could be <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/coronavirus-covid-19-deaths-in-gujarat-far-exceed-government-figures/article34352916.ece">far worse</a>. According to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/world/asia/india-coronavirus-deaths.html">New York Times</a>, crematories are in some cases reporting more cremations in a day than the number of officially reported deaths.
And on Monday, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2021/india-covid-cases-surge/">the Washington Post reported</a> that in Surat, a city in India’s western Gujarat state, crematories are dealing with up to five times as many dead as normal. In one case, the steel chimney pipes melted from overuse.
Despite the magnitude of the crisis, India has yet to impose a new national lockdown, as it did in <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/24/21190868/coronavirus-india-modi-lockdown-kashmir">March 2020</a>. And while some cities and states are <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/20/india-coronavirus-second-wave-shows-no-signs-of-slowing.html">imposing their own lockdowns</a>, almost-certain superspreader events — such as massive political rallies and a major Hindu religious festival — are continuing.
According to the BBC, millions of Hindus from around India have gathered for the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56770460">Kumbh Mela festival</a> in northern India, where attendees take a dip in the Ganges River.
And Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has kept up campaign events for his Bharatiya Janata Party in the state of West Bengal, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-19/modi-under-fire-for-campaigning-as-india-reels-from-virus-deaths">declaring</a> that “India had defeated Covid last year and India can do it again.”
At the same time, the Indian government has <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/twitter-blocking-tweets-india">successfully petitioned</a> Twitter to take down posts critical of its response to the crisis. According to BuzzFeed News, more than 50 critical tweets, from public officials, journalists, celebrities, and citizens, were taken down.
As <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/18/22390493/india-vaccine-shortage-export-ban-covid-19">Vox’s Katelyn Burns reported last week</a>, a vaccine shortage has also exacerbated the crisis — and international trade policy is contributing to that shortage.
Though India has substantial vaccine-manufacturing capacity, both the US and Europe have <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/18/22390493/india-vaccine-shortage-export-ban-covid-19">imposed limits on exporting crucial raw materials</a>, hampering India’s vaccination effort. The country is home to almost 1.4 billion people, but only about 21.4 million people — or about 1.59 percent of the population — have been fully vaccinated, <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/india">according to Johns Hopkins University</a>.
It’s unclear, however, whether the US will revise its policy in response to the crisis in India. On Thursday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price deflected when asked about the policy at a <a href="https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-april-22-2021/#post-237339-INDIA">press briefing</a>.
Price said that the current policy was under the “purview” of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the agency that oversees trade policy, but suggested that the Biden administration was prioritizing getting shots in American arms.
“What I will say broadly is that the United States first and foremost is engaged in an ambitious and effective and, so far, successful effort to vaccinate the American people,” Price said. ”That campaign is well underway.”
<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
"United States first and foremost is engaged in an ambitious and effective and, so far, successful effort to vaccinate the American people", US State Dept when asked about <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID</a> vaccine raw materials export to India <a href="https://t.co/YvzhuaAv3n">pic.twitter.com/YvzhuaAv3n</a>
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) <a href="https://twitter.com/sidhant/status/1385546546373005315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 23, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>
The export limits, however, are by no means the sole cause of India’s vaccine woes, nor would lifting them be a panacea as the coronavirus crisis there deepens.
Among other problems, the current surge in cases could stall a vaccine rollout even if vaccine availability increased, as <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/21/22383860/india-coronavirus-second-wave-covid-19-vaccine">Vox’s Jen Kirby</a> has reported:
<blockquote>
It’s a lot harder to massively ramp up a vaccination campaign in a country that is already floundering because of a health crisis. The same nurses or technicians deployed to vaccinate people are often the same personnel who need to attend to Covid-19 patients or conduct testing and contract tracing.
That could intensify the coronavirus surge, which could further stall the vaccination campaign, creating a dangerous cycle.
</blockquote>
There are other problems as well, including lockdown fatigue, government failures, and a new Covid-19 variant emerging in India.
“The public sentiment [in India] is of denial, fatigue, and fatalistic surrender,” University of Michigan biostatistician and epidemiologist Bhramar Mukherjee <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/21/22383860/india-coronavirus-second-wave-covid-19-vaccine">told Kirby</a> this month. Not only are mass religious and political events going forward, but <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/all-bengal-rallies-flouting-covid-19-norms-101618425712682.html">according to the Hindustan Times</a>, mask-wearing and social distancing at those events have largely gone by the wayside.
That fatigue is only compounded by how economically devastating India’s first lockdown was for the country. Some 32 million people fell out of the country’s middle class, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/03/18/in-the-pandemic-indias-middle-class-shrinks-and-poverty-spreads-while-china-sees-smaller-changes/">according to Pew Research Center</a>, and the number of people living in poverty in India, defined as those living on $2 per day or less, increased by 75 million.
Adding to the crisis are concerns about a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-16/india-has-a-double-mutant-virus-variant-should-we-be-worried">new virus variant</a> spreading in India. The variant, a “double mutant,” with two identified mutations, may be more transmissible than other strains of the coronavirus.
Little about the variant is known for sure yet — according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-16/india-has-a-double-mutant-virus-variant-should-we-be-worried">Bloomberg</a>, it’s still unclear whether, or to what extent, the new variant, B.1.617, is driving India’s catastrophic spike in cases and deaths — but the mutant is quickly becoming the dominant strain in parts of India.
Already, the variant made up about 70 percent of virus samples collected in late March — an increase of more than 50 percent from three weeks earlier, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-we-know-about-indias-double-mutant-covid-19-variant-11619193481">the Wall Street Journal</a>.
“India had a double whammy,” T. Jacob John, a retired virology professor at India’s Christian Medical College, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-we-know-about-indias-double-mutant-covid-19-variant-11619193481">told the Journal</a>. “We let our guard down when the variants were spreading. It was the worst time to do so.”
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/24/22400986/india-coronavirus-surge-hospitals-deaths">https://www.vox.com/2021/4/24/22400986/india-coronavirus-surge-hospitals-deaths</a>

vox A coronavirus surge is overwhelming India’s health care system

A horrific surge in coronavirus cases in India continued on Saturday, with new cases re-breaking a single-day world record as the country’...