MUMBAI/ISLAMABAD: India and Pakistan reported a big jump in new coronavirus infections on Thursday, driven by a resurgence in cases in their richest states.
While authorities in India have mainly blamed crowding and an overall reluctance to wear masks for its spike, Pakistan says the UK variant of the virus found in the country could also be a factor.
Maharashtra state, home to India’s commercial capital Mumbai, reported 23,179 of the country’s 35,871 new cases in the past 24 hours, and the fast-spreading contagion in major industrial areas raised risks of companies’ production being disrupted.
With the worst rise in infections since early December, India’s total cases stood at 11.47 million, the highest after the United States and Brazil. Deaths rose by 172 to 159,216, according to health ministry data on Thursday.
In Pakistan, 3,495 people tested positive in the past 24 hours, the most daily infections since early December. Total cases rose past 615,000. Deaths rose by 61 to 13,717.
Most of the new cases came from Pakistan’s largest and richest province, Punjab.
Pakistani minister Asad Umar said on Twitter that hospital beds were filling fast, warning of stricter curbs if rules were not followed.
“The new strain spreads faster and is more deadly,” he said on Twitter, referring to the UK variant.
India’s first wave peaked in September at nearly 100,000 cases a day, with daily infections hitting a low of just over 9,000 early last month.
India and Pakistan have a combined population of 1.57 billion, a fifth of humanity.
CURBS RETURN
Cases have been rising in Maharashtra since the reopening of most economic activity in February. Mumbai’s suburban trains, which carry millions daily, also resumed.
The state of 112 million people ordered a fresh lockdown in some districts and put curbs on cinemas, hotels and restaurants until the end of the month after infections rose to a multi-month high earlier this week
New cases have more than doubled in the past two weeks in Maharashtra’s industrial towns such as Pune, Aurangabad, Nashik and Nagpur, home to car, pharmaceutical and textile factories.
“We have asked industries there to operate with minimum manpower as much possible,” said a senior Maharashtra government official, declining to be named as he was not authorised to talk to the media. “Most of the IT companies have allowed their employees to work from home.”
Hospital beds and special COVID-19 facilities were filling up fast, especially in Mumbai, Nagpur and Pune, said another state official.
Earlier this month, more than 80% of oxygen and intensive-care beds in Maharashtra were unoccupied.
Half a dozen other states, such as Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, have also seen a rise in cases this month.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked state leaders to quickly increase testing and expand vaccination to “stop the emerging second peak of corona”.
India has administered more than 37 million vaccine doses since the middle of January.
India and Pakistan suffer new COVID-19 surge
https://arab.news/8tkw6
India and Pakistan suffer new COVID-19 surge
- Indian authorities mainly blame crowding and an overall reluctance to wear masks for its spike
- Pakistan says the UK variant of the virus found in the country could also be a factor in the surge
Australian bushfires raze homes, cut power to tens of thousands
- PM Anthony Albanese said the nation faced a day of “extreme and dangerous” fire weather, especially in Victoria, where much of the state has been declared a disaster zone
SYDNEY: Thousands of firefighters battled bushfires in Australia’s southeast on Saturday that have razed homes, cut power to thousands of homes and burned swathes of bushland. The blazes have torn through more than 300,000 hectares (741,316 acres) of bushland amid a heatwave in Victoria state since the middle of the week, authorities said on Saturday, and 10 major fires were still burning statewide. In neighboring New South Wales state, several fires close to the Victorian border were burning at emergency level, the highest danger rating, the Rural Fire Service said, as temperatures hit the mid-40s Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit). More than 130 structures, including homes, have been destroyed and around 38,000 homes and businesses were without power due to the fires in Victoria, authorities said. The fires were the worst to hit the state since the Black Summer blazes of 2019-2020 that destroyed an area the size of Turkiye and killed 33 people. “Where we can fires will be being brought under control,” Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan told reporters, adding thousands of firefighters were in the field.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the nation faced a day of “extreme and dangerous” fire weather, especially in Victoria, where much of the state has been declared a disaster zone.
“My thoughts are with Australians in these regional communities at this very difficult time,” Albanese said in televised remarks from Canberra. One of the largest fires, near the town of Longwood, about 112 km (70 miles) north of Melbourne, has burned 130,000 hectares (320,000 acres) of bushland, destroying 30 structures, vineyards and agricultural land, authorities said. Dozens of communities near the fires have been evacuated and many of the state’s parks and campgrounds were closed. A heatwave warning on Saturday was in place for large parts of Victoria, while a fire weather warning was active for large areas of the country including New South Wales, the nation’s weather forecaster said. In New South Wales capital Sydney, the temperature climbed to 42.2 C, more than 17 degrees above the average maximum for January, according to data from the nation’s weather forecaster.
It predicted conditions to ease over the weekend as a southerly change brought milder temperatures to the state.
