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An Indian Naval ship, INS Trikand, arrived Sunday at Mumbai port with Covid relief martial from Qatar. As part of  the ongoing Covid relief operation 'Samudra Setu II', INS Trikand brought two Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) containers of 20 MT each and 100 Oxygen cylinders, a press note released by the Indian  Ministry of Defence said.

India said Monday it had passed more than 300,000 coronavirus deaths, the third country after the United States and Brazil to hit the figure as it battles a huge wave of infections. The South Asian nation has been hitting record single-day rises in infections and fatalities in recent weeks, with its healthcare system overwhelmed by the Covid-19 wave. India's toll now stands at 303,720 after adding 50,000 deaths in just under two weeks, as the total number of infections rose above 26.7 million, health ministry data showed. It reported 4,454 Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, the second-highest daily toll since reaching a record 4,529 on Wednesday. The continued high number of deaths came as infections fell in major cities, including the capital New Delhi and financial hub Mumbai, where lockdowns have been imposed to stem the spread of the virus. "Deaths always will lag cases... People who have been diagnosed with infection now will go into hospital, and then a small number of them will die but that will be later," Ashoka University biology professor Gautam Menon told AFP Monday. Many experts also believe the real toll is much higher, particularly as the disease spreads into rural areas where the majority of the 1.3 billion population lives and where health facilities and record-keeping is poor. The wave has overwhelmed hospitals with patients, and also led to a severe shortage of oxygen and critical drugs. Harrowing images of long queues for funerals and makeshift pyres have also emerged from crematoriums and cemeteries. Bodies of suspected Covid-19 victims have meanwhile been seen floating down the holy Ganges river or buried in shallow graves. "We are seeing the bodies along the river Ganges which don't seem to be recorded as Covid deaths but are very likely to be Covid deaths," Menon said. "While everyone agrees that there is death undercounting, the question is -- what is the extent of the undercounting and has it consistently been a large figure, or has it only gone up... over the past three weeks to a month." Experts warned that religious festivals and packed state election rallies held earlier in the year could have led to virus "superspreader" events and that mass vaccinations are the only long-term solution. India has administered just over 196 million shots since mid-January, but experts say the programme needs to be significantly stepped up. The country, home to the world's largest vaccine maker, has halted exports of vaccines to meet local demand.

India's capital New Delhi will start relaxing its strict coronavirus lockdown next week if new cases continue to drop in the city, its chief minister said on Sunday. The nation on Sunday reported 240,842 new infections nationwide over 24 hours - the lowest daily new cases in more than a month - and 3,741 deaths. For weeks, India has battled a devastating second wave of Covid-19 that has crippled its health system and led to shortages of oxygen supplies. New Delhi, one of the worst hit cities, went into lockdown on April 20, but new cases have declined in recent weeks and test positivity rate has fallen under 2.5%, compared to 36% last month, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said. "If cases continue to drop for a week, then from May 31 we will start the process of unlocking," Kejriwal told a news conference. Delhi reported around 1,600 new Covid-19 cases in the previous 24 hours, he said. Many states remain in lockdown, raising worries about the economic impact of the pandemic. The chief of state-run Indian Council of Medical Research told Reuters this month that districts with a high rate of infection should remain locked down for six to eight weeks to break the chain of transmission. India's daily Covid-19 cases are decreasing after peaking on May 9. The government said on Sunday it is conducting the highest number of Covid-19 tests, with more than 2.1 million samples tested in the previous 24 hours. Still, experts have warned India could face a third wave of infections in coming months, and many states are unable to vaccinate those aged under 45 due to a shortage of supplies. The world's largest vaccine-producing nation has fully vaccinated just over 41.6 million people, or only 3.8% of its 1.35 billion population.

India’s Covid-19 outbreak has stabilised in parts of the country, a government official said, but deaths rose by 4,194 yesterday and infections were spreading in rural areas where public health services are scarce and already overstretched. India reported more than 400,000 infections a day in early May but the numbers have gradually eased. On Saturday, government data showed 257,299 new cases. Active cases in the richest state of Maharashtra and Karnataka, home to the tech hub of Bengaluru, and the coastal state of Kerala had fallen in the last two weeks, health ministry official Lav Agarwal told reporters. Daily numbers in states including West Bengal, which recently concluded state elections, and the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were on the rise, he said. With hospitals overflowing, the health system overwhelmed in the cities and a shortage of vaccines, experts have warned India could face a third wave of infections in coming months. “While it (spread of coronavirus) has stabilised in many parts of the country, and overall the burden has been lessened, we have a long way to go with this wave,” Dr V K Paul, part of a federal government panel on Covid-19 management, told a news conference. “For the first time, we have seen that rural areas have been affected in this pandemic.” Total infections in the country stood at 26.3mn, the second highest in the world after the United States, while the country’s total death toll was 295,525. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and state authorities have faced widespread criticism for failing to counter the pandemic as many officials gear up for another surge.  The slow pace of vaccination in the country is another major concern. New Delhi’s chief minister said city authorities had been forced to halt vaccinations for those aged between 18 and 44 as supplies had run out. The chief minister of Andhra Pradesh urged Modi to help with supplies as the state had no stocks to vaccinate those aged below 45.  Case numbers also rose in neighbouring Nepal, which on Saturday said it had added 8,591 infections in 24 hours to take its total count above the half-million mark.

Hackers have stolen data on about 4.5 million Air India passengers around the world in the latest breach reported by a major airline. Names, credit card numbers and passport information were among the data stolen, Air India said in a statement released late Friday. The state-owned giant said it was ‘securing the compromised servers’ and using ‘external specialists’ on data security as well as working with credit card companies. ‘We deeply regret the inconvenience caused and appreciate continued support and trust of our passengers,’ the airline said. A number of airlines have been hit by data breaches in recent years. British Airways was fined $28 million last year by a British watchdog after details of 400,000 passengers were lost in a 2018 cyberattack. Cathay Pacific was fined $700,000 after details of more than nine million clients were lost in 2018. And low-cost carrier EasyJet said last year that hackers had taken the email and travel details of about nine million customers. Air India announced in March that it had been informed in February by its data processing company, SITA PSS of a cyberattack. The breach involved personal data registered between August 2011 and February 2021, the airline said. SITA, which provides IT backup to much of the aviation industry, said at the time that it had been the target of a ‘highly sophisticated attack’ that had affected a number of airlines. Air India is part of the Star Alliance coalition of airlines and SITA handles computer operations for its frequent flyer programme. Other airlines in the alliance warned passengers in March of the cyberattack but most said only names and frequent flyer numbers had been accessed.  

A major new storm was brewing in the Bay of Bengal off India’s east coast yesterday, forecasters warned just days after the biggest cyclone to hit the west of the country in decades left at least 120 people dead. Scientists say cyclones in the densely-populated region, currently reeling from coronavirus, are becoming both more frequent and stronger as climate change leads to warmer sea temperatures. Even before cyclone Tauktae hammered the coast late Monday, torrential downpours at its outer bands and strong winds killed around 20 people in western and southern India. In Gujarat where winds smashed windows, felled tens of thousands of trees and knocked out power for huge numbers of people, the number of dead rose to 53, officials said late Wednesday. The toll could rise further, however, with local newspapers saying almost 80 people had died in the state, many killed by collapsing houses or walls. Around 200,000 were evacuated before the cyclone arrived but no serious problems were reported at Covid hospitals. The cyclone weakened as it moved northeast, dumping heavy rain in Allahabad and New Delhi, which reportedly had its wettest and coolest day in May in 70 years. The storm also pummelled offshore oil installations with waves up to 26 feet high, dislodging one oil rig and several support vessels with around 700 people on board. Around 600 were rescued by the navy but 49 died and 26 remain missing from an accommodation barge for oil workers that ripped free of its anchors in the storm and sank. Thirty-seven bodies have been recovered so far and navy planes and helicopters were scouring the Arabian Sea for any more survivors.

India has ordered tighter surveillance of a rare fungal disease hitting Covid-19 patients, officials said yesterday, piling pressure on hospitals struggling with the world’s highest number of daily infections of the novel coronavirus. Mucormycosis, or “black fungus” usually infects people whose immune system has been compromised, causing blackening or discolouration over the nose, blurred or double vision, chest pain, breathing difficulties and coughing blood. Doctors believe that the use of steroids to treat severe Covid-19 could be causing the rash of cases because those drugs reduce immunity and push up sugar levels. Health Secretary Lav Agarwal said in a letter to state governments that mucormycosis had emerged as a new challenge for Covid-19 patients on steroid therapy and those with pre-existing diabetes. “This fungal infection is leading to prolonged morbidity and mortality among Covid-19 patients,” he said in the letter yesterday. He gave no numbers of the mucormycosis cases nationwide but Maharashtra, one of the states worst hit in the second wave of coronavirus infections, has reported 1,500 cases of it. Agarwal asked state governments to declare it as a “notifiable disease” under the Epidemics Act, meaning they have to identify and track every case. India yesterday reported 276,110 new coronavirus infections over the previous 24 hours, slightly higher than a day earlier but well below the 400,000 high seen at the beginning of this month in a devastating second wave. The total caseload stands at 25.77mn, the world’s second highest after the US. Deaths rose by 3,874 overnight, taking the total tally 287,122. But with hospitals and crematoria overflowing and the health system overwhelmed, it is widely accepted that the official figures grossly underestimate the real impact of the epidemic, with some experts saying infections and deaths could be five to 10 times higher. The second wave has penetrated deep into the countryside and the additional burden of mucormycosis has hit a rural health system ill-equipped to cope. S P Kalantari, a doctor based in Sevagram, a town in Maharashtra, said that a team including ear, nose, and throat surgeons, ophthalmologists and neurologists was needed to treat mucormycosis. “Unfortunately, this kind of team does not exist in rural areas,” Kalantari said. Meanwhile special hospital wards will be set up in New Delhi to fight the ‘black fungus’, authorities. The disease kills more than 50% of sufferers within days. In some cases, eyes and upper jaws are removed by surgeons to stop the spread of the infection. New Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said special wards would be set up at three hospitals to handle the increased number of black fungus cases. He also vowed to ensure that all patients will get the medicines they need, with anti-fungal drugs the latest shortage to hit India’s already stretched healthcare system. There are more than 200 black fungus patients in New Delhi hospitals, with dozens on waiting lists for beds, according to media reports. Indian social media has been flooded with requests from relatives of mucormycosis sufferers pleading for help to find medicines. The Rajasthan and Telangana states have declared black fungus epidemics.

Three days after their father died of coronavirus, six-year-old twins Tripti and Pari were found sleeping next to their mother, unaware that she had also become a victim. Thousands of children have lost one or both parents in the new pandemic wave ravaging India, where there were already millions of orphans. The prospect of a surge of abandoned minors worries many. Tripti and Pari, whose names have been changed, are now being cared for by their mother’s uncle, Ramesh Singh. “I keep telling the girls their parents will come home soon,” said Singh, whose name has also been changed to protect the children’s identities. “I don’t want to tell them the truth now... they’re too young.” Their heartbroken mother refused to eat properly after her husband’s death, which complicated her recovery from coronavirus, Singh said. When repeated knocks on the door went unanswered, relatives threw water on the girls from a window to make them open up. They were taken away as doctors arrived to declare their mother dead. While the twins are being looked after, the pandemic – which is claiming thousands of lives a day – is leaving others without a caregiver. Such children “are not only living an emotional tragedy, they are at high risk of neglect, abuse and exploitation”, said Unicef India’s chief Yasmin Haque. In another case, media reported last month on a baby found next to its mother who had been dead for 48 hours and whose neighbours feared contracting the virus. The official pandemic toll is more than 270,000 in India, though the real number is widely believed to be far higher with many people dying outside of the overwhelmed medical system. “We don’t know how many people are dying, let alone how many children are orphaned,” said Akancha Srivastava, a cybersecurity expert who has launched a coronavirus helpline for children. However online evidence points to a devastating scale. Social media appeals are being made for breast milk and food for infants who have lost their mothers. Some coronavirus orphans are also being put up for illegal adoption on social media. Srivastava said her helpline received at least 300 calls and messages in a day. “Our authorities are overburdened, people are hassled. It’s extremely easy in these circumstances to misassign a child to some trafficking racket or an adoption racket,” she said. Under Indian law, an orphaned child must be seen by a government official and is put in an institution if there are no relatives to look after them. Smriti Irani, India’s minister for women and child development, this month warned that unofficial approaches to adopting Covid-19 orphans are a “trap” and “illegal”. AFP received one message on WhatsApp offering a two-year-old girl and a two-month-old boy for adoption. “Brahmin children,” the message said, suggesting the children were upper-caste Hindus. The contact number has since been switched off and has been investigated by authorities. Children whose parents have died or are sick have been reduced to selling vegetables on the streets, according to the Protsahan India Foundation, a child rights NGO. “We’re looking at a generation of children in extreme distress and facing severe trauma who will grow up to be broken adults,” said Sonal Kapoor from the foundation.

India reported on Thursday 276,110 new coronavirus infections over the last 24 hours, while deaths rose by 3,874. The South Asian nation's infection tally stands at 25.77 million, with a death toll of 287,122, health ministry data showed.

Nearly two-thirds of people tested in India have shown exposure to Covid-19, a chain of private laboratories said yesterday, indicating a runaway spread of the virus as the daily death toll rose to a record 4,529. India reported 267,334 new daily infections yesterday, taking its tally to 25.5mn, the world’s second highest after the US, with a death toll of 283,248, health ministry data showed. For months, nowhere has been hit harder than India by the pandemic, as a new variant discovered there fuelled a surge of up to more than 400,000 new infections a day. With hospitals and crematoria overflowing and the health system overwhelmed, it is widely accepted that the official figures grossly underestimate the real impact of the epidemic, with some experts saying infections and deaths could be five to 10 times higher. There are fears that the new, highly infectious variant is out of control and that many cases are going unreported because of lack of testing, particularly in the vast countryside. Data from Thyrocare, a chain of private laboratories, appeared to back up those fears, showing that 63.5% of people tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies on average over the last seven days, up from 45% a month ago. The data from 25 states included individuals infected in the past, vaccinated, uninfected and those who had not been vaccinated, the company’s chief executive Arokiaswamy Velumani said on Twitter. Criticism of Prime Minster Narendra Modi has been rising but M Govinda Rao, a former member of the economic advisory council to the prime minister, said the rate at which the virus was spreading had caught everyone by surprise. “The unprecedented speed at which the second wave of the pandemic spread completely took the (state) governments as well as the people off guard,” Rao told the Hindu newspaper. Daily testing hit a record 2mn on Tuesday, figures from the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research showed. But that still falls short of India’s claimed daily testing capacity of 3.3mn, said Rijo M John, a professor at the Rajagiri College of Social Sciences in the southern city of Kochi. John also questioned how useful the results of the tests were. “Many of these tests are being deployed in urban centres, where cases may have peaked and so it doesn’t serve much purpose,” John said.

Naval vessels and aircraft scoured the waters off India’s west coast late yesterday after the most powerful cyclone in more than two decades battered the region, sinking an oilfield accommodation barge and killing 26 aboard, authorities said. Cyclone Tauktae unleashed waves of up to 25 feet offshore before it hit the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat over the past two days, leaving a trail of destruction that killed 62 others, authorities said. Naval ships and aircraft have been deployed to search for the 49 still missing from the barge tragedy. “Search and rescue (SAR) operations off Mumbai and Gujarat entered their third day yesterday. Indian Naval ships and aircraft are presently undertaking SAR of the missing crew members of accommodation barge P-305, which sank on May 17, 35 miles off Mumbai,” the navy spokesperson said in a statement. The barge, with 261 people on board, sank after the storm smashed into the Bombay High oilfield near Mumbai, where India’s biggest offshore oil rigs are located. The navy said 186 people had been rescued from the barge contracted to state-run energy explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. “No one would have had survived if not for the help that came... We are thankful they saved our lives,” one survivor said. “I had never thought of witnessing a situation like this. I was thinking about my family more than my life. I got injured while jumping off the barge,” another worker rescued from the barge said. The barge was deployed by Afcons Infrastructure, a construction and engineering company based in Mumbai. “We will extend our fullest support including financial assistance to the bereaved families in this hour of their need,” Afcons said in a statement. Several other ONGC vessels were stranded in the storm and the government has set up a committee to enquire into the sequence of events. “The stranding, drifting and subsequent events have led to loss of several lives,” the government said in a statement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an aerial survey of the damage in his home state of Gujarat, the state government said. The federal government declared financial aid worth Rs10bn  ($137mn) for immediate relief activities for Gujarat. Relatives of those killed in the cyclone would also get financial assistance from the government. Cyclone Tauktae has weakened since making landfall in Gujarat on Monday with gusts of up to 210kph and is expected to lose strength overnight, weather officials said. It ripped out power pylons, damaged about 16,500 homes and blocked more than 600 roads, piling pressure on authorities battling a massive spike in Covid-19 infections and deaths. “Restoration work is extremely challenging due to rain and strong winds, but we are focusing on the efforts on a war footing,” Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said. Surveys to ascertain the farm losses and other damages would begin in full form today, he added. Gujarat, among the states hardest hit by the second wave of the virus, will resume its vaccination effort from tomorrow, after a three-day suspension because of the cyclone, a state health official, Jai Prakash Shivahare, said. Wall collapses, electrocution incidents and falling trees were responsible for most of the state’s 46 cyclone deaths.

The death toll from a major cyclone that slammed into coronavirus-ravaged India jumped to at least 84 on Wednesday, as the navy searched for 65 people still missing and authorities scrambled to restore power to the worst-hit regions. Cyclone Tauktae, which pummelled the western coast late Monday and left a trail of destruction, has added to the country's woes as it suffered a record number of Covid-19 deaths. The cyclonic storm was the latest in what experts say is a growing number of ever-bigger storms in the Arabian Sea because of climate change warming its waters. The defence ministry said Wednesday that Navy ships had rescued more than 600 people after waves up to eight metres high hammered offshore oil installations. But 22 bodies were also recovered while planes and helicopters were still searching for 65 workers missing from one of several support vessels that slipped its moorings in the storm and sank. M.K. Jha, head of the Naval Western Command, said that the sea was so rough that they could not board life rafts. Those rescued have "hope in their eyes but certainly, they are distressed... they have been battered by the sea conditions for multiple hours," Jha told the NDTV news channel. Even before the cyclone made landfall in Gujarat state with gusts up to 185 kilometres per hour, associated heavy rains and strong winds killed around 20 people in western and southern India. Gujarat officials said Wednesday that the death toll in the state after the storm had risen to 42, with many killed by collapsing houses or walls and more fatalities expected as they accessed the scale of the damage. Those killed included a child crushed by a collapsing wall, an 80-year-old woman killed by a falling pole and a teenage girl by a crumbling roof. "I have never experienced such intensity in my life," said a hotel owner in the town of Bhavnagar where the winds smashed windows on the seafront and sent trees and power lines toppling. More than 16,500 houses were damaged, 40,000 trees were uprooted and engineers were working to restore power to hundreds of thousands of people on Wednesday. More than 15 percent of the total yearly production of salt in Gujarat -- India's biggest producer of the mineral -- was either washed away or unable to be harvested due to flooding, the Indian Salt Manufacturers Association told AFP. At least a dozen blackbucks classified as endangered in India as well as an unknown number of birds including egrets and herons that nest around human habitation have died, Gujarat's chief wildlife warden, Shyamal Tikadar, told AFP. Chief forests conservator D.T. Vasavada added that his department would survey the affected wildlife after uprooted and fallen trees were cleared. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted after a survey of the damage in Gujarat, his home state, that his government was "working closely with all the states affected by the cyclone". He announced financial aid for the state as well as for the families of the victims and those injured. Although the cyclone was one of the fiercest in decades, better forecasting than in previous disasters meant that 200,000 people in danger zones -- including hundreds of Covid-19 patients -- were moved to safety. The deadly weather system hit as India's healthcare system struggled with a coronavirus surge that in the past 24 hours killed a record 4,529 people. "This is one of the most powerful cyclones we've faced in India for decades, and after weeks of chaos and devastating loss of life caused by Covid-19, it could not have come at a worse time," said Santanu Chakraborty of the charity Save the Children. "Thousands of children and their families have lost their homes and their livelihoods, and the damage caused to roads and infrastructure will put even more pressure on local administrations already struggling to cope with the fallout from the pandemic." The Arabian Sea previously experienced fewer severe cyclones than the Bay of Bengal but rising water temperatures because of global warming was changing that, Roxy Mathew Koll from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology told AFP.

At least 33 people died and more than 90 were missing yesterday after a monster cyclone slammed India. The swirling system dubbed Cyclone Tauktae is the latest in what experts say is a growing number of increasingly severe storms in the Arabian Sea as climate change warms its waters. Hundreds of thousands of people were left without power after the storm hit the Gujarat coast in western India on Monday evening, leaving a trail of death and destruction. Winds up to 130km per hour smashed seafront windows and knocked over power lines and thousands of trees, blocking roads leading to affected areas, officials said. “I have never experienced such intensity in my life,” a hotel owner in the town of Bhavnagar said. “It was pitch dark as power was cut off and winds were making a roaring sound. It was scary.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set to visit the cyclone-hit regions in Gujarat, his home state, today. One support vessel serving oil rigs that were walloped by eight-metre waves off Mumbai sank and 93 of the 273 people who had been on board were missing, the Indian Navy said yesterday. The defence ministry said 180 people were rescued, with warships attempting to save the rest of the crew in “extremely challenging sea conditions”. Navy helicopters managed, however, to rescue all 137 people stuck on another barge that also slipped its anchor and ran aground. One other barge and an oil rig were also adrift. Elsewhere, seven new fatalities took the toll to 33, with most of the deaths occurring when houses or walls collapsed, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said. More than 16,500 houses were damaged, 40,000 trees were uprooted and nearly 6,000 villages were without electricity. Just over 2,100 villages had their power restored, officials said late yesterday. Although the cyclone was one of the fiercest in decades, better forecasting than in previous disasters meant that 200,000 people in danger zones were evacuated from their homes. “Our planning over the last three days has paid off. We have managed to minimise human casualties,” said Rupani. The cyclone barrelled inland, weakening slightly but still bringing heavy rains and gale-force winds. Forecasters said it had eased into a deep depression and would further weaken into a depression overnight. “This is one of the most powerful cyclones we’ve faced in India for decades, and after weeks of chaos and devastating loss of life caused by Covid-19, it could not have come at a worse time,” Save the Children India’s Santanu Chakraborty said in a statement yesterday. Last May, more than 110 people died after “super cyclone” Amphan ravaged eastern India and Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal. The Arabian Sea previously experienced fewer severe cyclones than the Bay of Bengal but rising water temperatures because of global warming was changing that, Roxy Mathew Koll from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology said. The effects were felt far and wide with authorities in Nepal — some 2,000km from Gujarat — advising climbers on Everest and other mountains to stay put. But more than 200 climbers ignored the warnings and were heading up the world’s highest mountain, eyeing the summit by the end of this week, a government official at the base camp said.

India’s total Covid-19 caseload surged past 25mn on Tuesday as a powerful cyclone complicated the health crisis in the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, already among the hardest hit by a second wave of the pandemic. Covid-19 tests were administered to 200,000 people evacuated from coastal districts of Gujarat and efforts were being made to try to limit any spread of infections. “Masks have been arranged for people shifted to shelter homes,” said Sandip Sagale, a top official in Ahmedabad, the main city in Gujarat. “Efforts are also made to maintain social distancing.” India’s total tally of coronavirus cases now stands at 25.23mn, health ministry data showed, following 263,533 new infections over the past 24 hours, while fatalities rose by a record 4,329. The official total death toll is 278,719. The government said about 98% of India’s population of 1.3bn remained susceptible to infections. Only the US has had more cases, or a worse single day death toll, when it lost 5,444 people on February 12. But whereas the epidemic there peaked months ago, there is no certainty that India’s infections have. Though the official count shows new infections subsiding, there are fears that the new, highly infectious B.1.617 variant, first found in India, is out of control and that many cases are going unreported due to lack of testing. Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, has suffered a 30% increase in infections since May 2, while the total number of vaccinations it administered last week was just 1.1mn — half the total of a month earlier. The storm has exacerbated efforts to tackle the pandemic in Gujarat, with vaccinations suspended and hospitals awaiting back-up generators to keep power running and additional oxygen supplies. Vaccinations are likely to remain suspended at least until today, a government official said yesterday. But Aayush Oak, a top official in Amreli, the district hardest hit by the cyclone, said preparations had paid off. “We had already shifted Covid patients from areas closer to the coast to hospitals in other places three days back and did not need to shift a single patient more. There is no disruption of oxygen supply to any hospital,” Oak said. Sunaina Tomar, energy secretary in Gujarat state, said 81 hospitals designated for coronavirus patients had faced power supply disruption, along with 16 other hospitals, and 19 oxygen refilling plants.

* People displaced by storm try to maintain social distancing * Vaccination rate slows in some places * Fears that cases, deaths much higher than official tally * Virus kills 269 doctors since April 1 -medical association India's total Covid-19 caseload surged past 25 million on Tuesday as a powerful cyclone complicated the health crisis in the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, already among the hardest hit by a second wave of the pandemic. Covid-19 tests were administered to 200,000 people evacuated from coastal districts of Gujarat before the cyclone struck late on Monday and efforts were being made to try to limit any spread of infections. "Masks have been arranged for people shifted to shelter homes," said Sandip Sagale, a top official in Ahmedabad, the main city in Gujarat. "Efforts are also made to maintain social distancing." India's total tally of coronavirus cases now stands at 25.23 million, health ministry data showed, following 263,533 new infections over the past 24 hours, while fatalities rose by a record 4,329. The official total death toll is now 278,719. The government said about 98% of India's population of 1.3 billion remained susceptible to infections. Only the United States has had more cases, or a worse single day death toll, when it lost 5,444 people on Feb. 12. But whereas the epidemic peaked months ago in the United States, there is no certainty that India's infections have. Though the official count shows new infections subsiding, there are fears that the new, highly infectious B.1.617 variant, first found in India, is out of control and that many cases are going unreported due to lack of testing. Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, has suffered a 30% increase in infections since May 2, while the total number of vaccinations it administered last week was just 1.1 million - half the total of a month earlier. The storm, which has killed at least 19 people and caused widespread devastation, has exacerbated efforts to tackle the pandemic in Gujarat, with vaccinations suspended and hospitals awaiting back-up generators to keep power running and additional oxygen supplies. Vaccinations are likely to remain suspended at least until Wednesday, a government official said. But Aayush Oak, a top official in Amreli, the district hardest hit by the cyclone, said preparations had paid off. "We had already shifted Covid patients from areas closer to the coast to hospitals in other places three days back and did not need to shift a single patient more. There is no disruption of oxygen supply to any hospital," Oak said. Sunaina Tomar, energy secretary in Gujarat state, said 81 hospitals designated for coronavirus patients had faced power supply disruption, along with 16 other hospitals, and 19 oxygen refilling plants. "Power supply has been restored to 29 Covid hospitals, 12 other hospitals, and six oxygen units, and work to restore supply is going on at a war footing at other places," she said in a statement. Gujarat's health secretary Jayanti Ravi said there were adequate stocks of oxygen, and teams were working to ensure that roads remained clear for emergency medical requirements despite the damage caused by the cyclone. In neighbouring Maharashtra state, which was sideswiped by the cyclone on Monday, 1,000 coronavirus deaths were reported overnight - the worst toll nationwide. The infection rate there has soared 15% in the last two weeks, government data showed. The pace of vaccinations in Maharashtra has fallen 30% since peaking in early April, data from the government's Co-WIN portal showed. Since April 1, 269 doctors nationwide have died of Covid-19, 78 of them in the mostly rural state of Bihar, the Indian Medical Association said. "The surge has been very devastating," its secretary-general, Jayesh Lele, told Reuters. In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, home to more people than Brazil, rural areas have been severely hit, as healthcare systems have struggled to cope. Incensed by scarce testing and tracing, a state court said on Monday the situation was turning to "God's mercy" and hurtling towards a third wave. "If this is the state of affairs of five districts, one can guess where we are leading people of this state to, i.e. (a) third wave of the pandemic," said the Allahabad High Court. Chandrakant Lahariya, a public policy and health systems expert, said in the Hindustan Times newspaper that India's vaccine policy urgently needed a reset. "For six weeks now, India's vaccination drive has been struggling," he said. "The political leadership should give a free hand to technical experts to decide and implement new strategies." India, the world's largest vaccine maker, halted exports a month ago after donating or selling more than 66 million doses, and government sources told Reuters it was unlikely to resume major exports of vaccines until at least October to prioritise domestic needs. India is one of the countries likely to benefit from US President Joe Biden's announcement on Monday that his administration would send at least 20 million more Covid-19 vaccine doses abroad by the end of June.

The number of people from Myanmar seeking shelter in India has swelled to more than 15,000, with more likely to cross over as fighting intensifies in parts Myanmar following a coup, an Indian government official said on Tuesday. The influx into the small, northeast Indian state of Mizoram, which shares a porous, mountainous border with Myanmar, began in late February as policemen fled to avoid having to take orders from a junta trying to suppress opposition to the Feb. 1 coup. By April, about 1,800 people from Myanmar - including several lawmakers - had crossed the border but the number has recently grown to more than 15,400, according to the vice chairman of Mizoram's State Planning Board, H. Rammawi. "It is increasing day by day," Rammawi told Reuters by telephone, adding that many people from Myanmar were going to the homes of relatives making it difficult to track numbers. Communities in Mizoram and some parts of Myanmar have close ethnic ties, with extended families often strung across both sides of the border. About 6,000 of the people from Myanmar are in Mizoram's capital of Aizawl with others scattered in five districts, according to data shared by Rammawi. Rammawi said that residents and non-government organisations were taking care of the people but the state government had sought assistance from federal authorities. "Medical aid and their rations are very important," he said, adding that some people from Myanmar had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. With fighting intensifying in northwest Myanmar's Chin State, opposite Mizoram, Rammawi said he expected the numbers seeking refuge in India to increase. The Myanmar hill town of Mindat, about 100 km from the border, has seen some of the most intense fighting since the coup after a militia took up arms against the junta. Thousands have since fled from the town. "More people will be coming," Rammawi said. Several thousand villagers have fled from fighting in eastern Myanmar into Thailand since the coup.

Driven by pride in their language and heritage, a growing network of volunteers is helping expand Arabic language content on Wikipedia, raising the number of articles above 1 million. Launched in 2003, Arabic Wikipedia has seen growth accelerate in recent years, with the number of articles more than doubling since 2015 thanks to enthusiastic volunteers across the Arab world. ‘We are volunteers for the love of the Arabic language, for the love of our culture, for the love of our countries for the love of knowledge in general,’ said Emna Mizouni, a contributor from Tunisia who also runs an association working on heritage. In 2020, more than 15,000 people made about 1.6 million edits to the online encyclopaedia's Arabic content, creating more than 77,000 new entries. Registered users grew by 44% to 136,000. ‘They are helping each other to create more knowledge,’ said Jack Rabah, a regional manager at the Wikimedia Foundation, which supports writers and editors with software, project funding and partnerships that help boost content. Arabic was the 10th most-viewed language on Wikipedia for Covid-19 related content, though critics say the site lacks coverage of science and technology in Arabic - a lacuna some volunteers say they are working to remedy. Anass Sedrati, a 31-year-old Moroccan telecoms engineer working and studying in Sweden, spends nearly two hours daily writing new articles, translating and coordinating with other volunteers. ‘There are people who may not have had an opportunity, for example, to finish their schooling and to buy books,’ he said. ‘We can consider this as an attempt to provide knowledge to those who have not had the same opportunities as us.’ The 1 million articles in Arabic are just a fraction of the nearly 55 million across different languages on Wikipedia. Volunteers say there is room for more growth. ‘The Arab world can write more, and we must have an article on everything that exists and on everything related to our life,’ said Sarmad Yaseen, a 40-year-old volunteer from Iraq who is also a telecoms engineer. ‘We have an ancient civilisation, we have writers, we have poets, we have creative people in all fields.’  

At least 27 people were dead and almost 100 missing on Tuesday after a monster cyclone slammed India, compounding the country's woes as it recorded a new record number of coronavirus deaths in 24 hours. The colossal swirling system dubbed Cyclone Tauktae is the latest in what experts say is a growing number of increasingly severe storms in the Arabian Sea as climate change warms its waters. Hundreds of thousands of people were left without power after the storm hit the Gujarat coast in western India on Monday evening, leaving a trail of death and destruction. Winds up to 130 kilometres per hour smashed seafront windows and knocked over power lines and thousands of trees, blocking roads leading to affected areas, officials said. "I have never experienced such intensity in my life," a hotel owner in the town of Bhavnagar said. "It was pitch dark as power was cut off and winds were making a roaring sound. It was scary." One support vessel serving oil rigs that were walloped by eight-metre waves off Mumbai sank and 96 of the 273 people who had been on board were missing, the Indian Navy said Tuesday. The defence ministry said 177 people were rescued, with warships attempting to save the rest of the crew in "extremely challenging sea conditions". Navy helicopters managed, however, to rescue all 137 people stuck on another barge that also slipped its anchor and ran aground. One other barge and an oil rig were also adrift. Elsewhere, seven fresh casualties took the toll to 27 including a child crushed by a collapsing wall, an 80-year-old woman killed by a falling pole and a teenage girl by a crumbling roof. More than 16,500 houses were damaged, 40,000 trees were uprooted and 2,400 villages were without power. "Since the cyclone made landfall we have not had power or communications," local official Aayush Oak told AFP by phone from the coastal district of Amreli, where 40-50 mobile phone towers were damaged. Although the cyclone was one of the fiercest in decades, better forecasting than in previous disasters meant that 200,000 people in danger zones were evacuated from their homes. "Our planning over the last three days has paid off. We have managed to minimise human casualties," said Gujarat state chief minister Vijay Rupani. The cyclone barrelled inland, weakening slightly but still bringing heavy rains and gale-force winds. Forecasters said it would ease into a deep depression during the next six hours. The deadly weather system hit as India's healthcare system struggled with a coronavirus surge that in the past 24 hours killed a record 4,329 people. Mumbai shifted about 600 Covid-19 patients from field hospitals "to safer locations". In Gujarat, all Covid-19 patients in hospitals within five kilometres of the coast were moved. Authorities there scrambled to ensure there would be no power cuts in hospitals and 41 oxygen plants. "Out of the 1,400 covid hospitals, power was disrupted in only 16. In 12 hospitals, power has been restored and four are working on generators," Rupani said. However, one Covid-19 patient died in the town of Mahuva after he could not be moved in time before the storm hit, doctors said. The state also suspended vaccinations for two days. Mumbai did the same for one day. "This cyclone is a terrible double blow for millions of people in India whose families have been struck down by record Covid infections and deaths," said Udaya Regmi from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Last May, more than 110 people died after "super cyclone" Amphan ravaged eastern India and Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal. The Arabian Sea previously experienced fewer severe cyclones than the Bay of Bengal but rising water temperatures because of global warming was changing that, Roxy Mathew Koll from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology told AFP. "(The) Arabian Sea is one of the fastest-warming basins across the global oceans," he said. The effects were felt far and wide with authorities in Nepal -- some 2,000 kilometres from Gujarat -- advising climbers on Everest and other mountains to stay put. But more than 200 climbers ignored the warnings and were heading up the world's highest mountain, eyeing the summit by the end of this week, a government official at the base camp said.

Some 127 people were missing Tuesday after a vessel adrift off Mumbai's coast sank during Cyclone Tauktae, the Indian navy said as two ships and helicopters were deployed to assist in the search. The vessel was carrying 273 people when it started drifting on Monday as strong winds battered India's western coast, sending huge waves crashing onto its shores and turning roads into rivers. The defence ministry said 146 people were rescued from the vessel, which was operated by a state-run oil company, with operations expected to continue throughout the day in ‘extremely challenging sea conditions’. The colossal cyclone -- the biggest to hit the region in decades -- claimed lives in Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat as savage winds swept through flimsy homes and uprooted trees and electricity pylons. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated while authorities in Mumbai shifted about 600 Covid-19 patients in field hospitals ‘to safer locations’. Tauktae made landfall in Gujarat late Monday as an ‘extremely severe cyclonic storm’ packing gusts of up to 185 kilometres (115 miles) per hour, the Indian Meteorological Department said. It weakened to a ‘very severe cyclonic storm’ by Tuesday morning. The deadly weather system has exacerbated India's embattled response to a coronavirus surge that is killing at least 4,000 people daily, and pushing the health system to breaking point.

A deadly cyclone blasted ashore in western India late yesterday with fierce winds and drenching rains that turned streets into rivers, disrupting the country’s response to its devastating Covid-19 outbreak. Cyclone Tauktae, which local press reports called the biggest to hit the area in 30 years, has unleashed heavy weather since the weekend that killed at least 20 people in its approach to land. It made landfall in Gujarat just after 8.30pm local time as an extremely severe cyclonic storm packing winds of 155-165km per hour, gusting up to 185kph, the Indian Meteorological Department said. One woman died after high winds knocked over an electricity poll in the city of Patan in northern Gujarat, officials said. Sea levels swelled as high as 10 feet along the coast, said local weather officials in the coastal town of Diu, which reported wind speeds of 133kph. The colossal swirling system visible from space has exacerbated India’s embattled response to a coronavirus surge that is killing at least 4,000 people daily and pushing hospitals to their breaking point. In waterlogged and windswept Mumbai, where authorities on Monday closed the airport and urged people to stay indoors, authorities shifted 580 Covid patients “to safer locations” from three field hospitals. Six people died and nine were injured as the storm lashed Maharashtrae, of which Mumbai is the capital, the chief minister’s office said. Two navy ships were deployed to assist in search and rescue operations for a barge carrying 273 people “adrift” off Mumbai’s coast, with 28 picked up so far, the defence ministry said late yesterday. Seven people died and nearly 1,500 houses were damaged in Kerala state, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan tweeted late yesterday. Around 200,000 people were evacuated in Gujarat, where all Covid-19 patients in hospitals within 5kms of the coast were also moved. Authorities there scrambled to ensure there would be no power cuts in the nearly 400 designated Covid hospitals and 41 oxygen plants in 12 coastal districts. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani told reporters that over 1,000 Covid hospitals in coastal towns have been provided with generators and power backups, with 744 health teams deployed along with 174 ICUs on wheels and 600 ambulances. “Besides the daily requirement of 1,000 tonnes of oxygen in Gujarat per day, an additional stock of 1,700 tonnes has been secured and could be used in case of emergency,” Rupani said. Virus safety protocols such as wearing masks, social distancing and the use of sanitisers would be observed in the shelters for evacuees, officials added. The state also suspended vaccinations for two days. Mumbai did the same for one day. Thousands of disaster response personnel have been deployed, while units from the coast guard, navy, army and air force have been placed on standby. Maharashtra evacuated around 12,500 people from coastal areas. Four people died on Saturday as rain and winds battered Karnataka state, while two died in Goa as winds hit power supplies and uprooted trees.