NEW DELHI: India reported 40,953 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the biggest daily jump in nearly four months, with its richest state and economic backbone Maharashtra accounting for more than half the infections.
Deaths rose by 188 to 159,404, the health ministry reported, underscoring a resurgence of the virus in the world’s third worst affected country, after the United States and Brazil.
Some regions in India have already reimposed containment measures, including lockdowns and restaurant closures, and more are being considered.
Doctors have blamed the fresh infection wave on people’s relaxed attitude to mask-wearing and other social distancing measures, warning that hospital wards were swiftly filling up in states like Maharashtra.
Maharashtra reported a record 25,681 cases, including 3,000 in the financial capital of Mumbai, over the past 24 hours.
The state of 112 million people has imposed a lockdown in some districts and put curbs on cinemas, hotels and restaurants until the end of the month. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray warned that a wider lockdown is an option, according to local media.
The rise in India’s COVID-19 cases peaked at nearly 100,000 a day in September, and had been falling steadily until late last month.
In addition to Maharashtra, the Indian states of Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh all reported a surge in new cases.
The capital, New Delhi, has reported a steady rise in infections over the last two weeks, prompting city authorities to scale up an immunization drive to 125,000 doses per day, from about 40,000.
Many Indians have started questioning the government’s highly publicized vaccine exports campaign when only a fraction of the country’s 1.35 billion people have been inoculated.
The government has announced plans to inoculate 300 million people, or a fifth of the population, by August. Yet only 42 million have been vaccinated so far, while the world’s biggest vaccine maker has gifted or exported almost 60 million doses.
India coronavirus cases surge to four-month high, some lockdowns return
https://arab.news/2trhm
India coronavirus cases surge to four-month high, some lockdowns return
- Some regions in India have already reimposed containment measures
- Many Indians have started questioning the government’s highly publicized vaccine exports campaign
UK drops plans for mandatory digital ID for workers in latest U-turn, media reports
- The digital ID would be held on people’s mobile phones, the government said
- The plan drew criticism from political opponents and warning it could infringe on civil liberties
LONDON: Britain is set to drop plans to make it mandatory for workers to hold a digital identity document, The Times newspaper, the BBC and other media reported on Tuesday, potentially marking another policy U-turn for the Labour government.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced in September last year that his government would require every employee to hold a digital ID in an attempt to tackle illegal migration and reduce the threat from the populist Reform UK party.
The government said the digital ID would be held on people’s mobile phones and become a mandatory part of checks employers must make when hiring staff.
The plan drew criticism from political opponents, with some arguing it would not deter illegal migration and others warning it could infringe on civil liberties.
The Times said the government abandoned the plan amid concerns it could undermine public trust in the scheme, noting that when introduced in 2029, digital IDs would be optional rather than mandatory.
Other forms of documentation, such as an electronic visa or passport, would still be valid, The Times said.
“We are committed to mandatory digital right to work checks,” a government spokesperson said. “We have always been clear that details on the digital ID scheme will be set out following a full public consultation which will launch shortly.”
The spokesperson said current checks rely on a “hodgepodge” of paper-based systems, with no record of whether they were ever carried out, leaving the process open to fraud and abuse.
If plans for a mandatory digital ID are dropped, it would mark another policy climbdown for Starmer.
In December, the government scaled back a plan to raise more tax from farmers, months after it backed down on cuts to welfare spending and scaled back a proposal to reduce subsidies on energy bills for the elderly.
