International

US President Joe Biden promised emergency assistance to Covid-ravaged India in a telephone call yesterday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the two countries said. Biden “pledged America’s steadfast support for the people of India who have been impacted by the recent surge in Covid-19 cases,” the White House said. Modi, according to an Indian statement, “conveyed his heartfelt appreciation for the offer of assistance.” In one point not touched on by the White House, India said that Modi raised with Biden a call to ease intellectual property requirements on Covid vaccines. Such a move would “ensure quick and affordable access to vaccines and medicines for developing countries,” the Indian statement said. Meanwhile the World Health Organisation chief yesterday voiced alarm at India’s record-breaking wave of Covid-19 cases and deaths, saying the organisation was rushing to help address the crisis. “The situation in India is beyond heartbreaking,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. “WHO is doing everything we can, providing critical equipment and supplies,” Tedros said. He said the UN health agency was among other things sending “thousands of oxygen concentrators, prefabricated mobile field hospitals and laboratory supplies.” The WHO also said it had transferred more than 2,600 of its experts from various programmes, including polio and tuberculosis, to work with Indian health authorities to help respond to the pandemic. The Indian government yesterday ordered its armed forces to help tackle surging new coronavirus infections that are overwhelming hospitals. In a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the chief of defence staff general Bipin Rawat said oxygen would be released to hospitals from armed forces reserves and retired medical military personnel would join Covid-19 health facilities. And where possible, military medical infrastructure will be made available to civilians, a government statement said, as new coronavirus infections hit a record peak for a fifth day. “All efforts are being made to overcome challenges thrown up by this wave of Covid-19,” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Twitter. Modi on Sunday urged all citizens to get vaccinated and to exercise caution amid what he called a “storm” of infections, while hospitals and doctors in some northern states posted urgent notices saying they were unable to cope with the influx. In some of the worst-hit cities, bodies were being burnt in makeshift facilities offering mass cremations. The southern state of Karnataka, home to the tech city of Bengaluru, ordered a 14-day lockdown from today, joining the western industrial state of Maharashtra, where lockdowns run until May 1, although some states were also set to lift lockdown measures this week. The patchy curbs, complicated by local elections and mass festival gatherings, could prompt breakouts elsewhere, as infections rose by 352,991 in the last 24 hours, with crowded hospitals running out of oxygen supplies and beds. Decision on jab imports by states attacked The government has decided to leave the import of Covid-19 vaccines to state authorities and companies, two officials said, a decision that may slow acquisitions of shots. They said the government would instead aim to support domestic vaccine makers by guaranteeing purchases from them. The government this month paid Indian producers in advance, for the first time, for vaccine doses. Under fire for his uneven handling of the world’s worst Covid-19 surge, Modi has opened vaccinations for all adults from next month but supplies are already running short. After cases began soaring this month, Modi’s government urged Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to seek permission to sell their shots in India, and he relaxed rules for them. But the sources said New Delhi was now leaving it to India’s states and firms to sign deals with foreign drugmakers while it buys half the output of Indian producers — the Serum Institute, now manufacturing the AstraZeneca vaccine, and Bharat Biotech, the maker of a home-grown shot.

India's coronavirus cases hit a record peak for a fifth day on Monday as countries including Britain, Germany and the United States pledged to send urgent medical aid to help tackle the crisis overwhelming its hospitals. Infections in the past 24 hours rose to 352,991, with overcrowded hospitals in Delhi and nationwide turning away patients after running out of supplies of medical oxygen and beds. On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged all citizens to be vaccinated and exercise caution, saying the storm of infections had shaken the nation. Hospitals and doctors have put out urgent notices saying they were unable to cope with the rush of patients. The United States will immediately send raw materials for vaccines, medical equipment and protective gear to help India respond to its massive surge in infections, President Joe Biden said on Sunday. Germany will send oxygen and medical aid in the coming days, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday, while the European Commission has also said it aims to send oxygen and medicines. India, with a population of 1.3 billion, has a tally of 17.31 million infections and 195,123 deaths, after 2,812 deaths overnight, health ministry data showed. Health experts say the death count is probably far higher.  

The US will immediately provide raw materials for Covid-19 vaccines, medical equipment and protective gear to help India respond to a massive surge in Covid-19 infections, a White House spokeswoman said yesterday. “The US is working around the clock to deploy available resources and supplies,” National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement. Horne said the materials would help India manufacture the Covishield vaccine. The US would also send therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits and ventilators. The US was also pursuing options to provide India with oxygen generation and related supplies. US officials are also considering sending India its unused Covid-19 vaccines doses from AstraZeneca, the top US infectious disease official Dr Anthony Fauci told ABC News yesterday. “That’s something that certainly is going to be actively considered,” Fauci said in an interview. AstraZeneca’s vaccine is not yet approved in the US, which has millions of doses, and top US health officials have said they have enough doses of approved versions by three other drugmakers to inoculate all Americans in coming weeks. The nation’s top business lobbying group has also pushed the administration to send AstraZeneca’s vials to countries with rising cases. The White House had no comment on the possibility of sending AstraZeneca vaccine to India. Senior US officials have expressed concern that new variants of the virus emerging in India could undermine progress made in the US. The outbreak also threatens the economic recovery of India, the sixth-largest economy in the world. Horne said the US would also send a team of experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and US Agency for International Development to work with India. Meanwhile  the office of French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday said it will send oxygen respiratory equipment to India in the coming days. Earlier yesterday, the European Commission activated its EU Civil Protection Mechanism and said it was seeking to send oxygen and medicine to India after receiving a request from Delhi.  Britain yesterday said it was sending life-saving medical equipment to India, including ventilators and oxygen concentrators. London will ship more than 600 pieces of equipment to New Delhi to support its fight against the virus, following a request from India and Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledging the UK would do “all it can” to help. “We stand side by side with India as a friend and partner during what is a deeply concerning time in the fight against Covid-19,” Johnson said in a statement. German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday said her government was preparing emergency aid for India. “To the people of India I want to express my sympathy on the terrible suffering that Covid-19 has again brought over your communities,” Merkel said in a message shared on Twitter by her spokesman Steffen Seibert. “The fight against the pandemic is our common fight. Germany stands in solidarity with India and is urgently preparing a mission of support.” Country shaken by coronavirus ‘storm’: Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday urged all citizens to be vaccinated and exercise caution, saying the “storm” of infections had shaken India, as the country set a new global record of the most number of Covid-19 infections in a day. The number of cases in India surged by 349,691 in the past 24 hours, the fourth straight day of record peaks. Hospitals in Delhi and across the country are turning away patients after running out of medical oxygen and beds. “We were confident, our spirits were up after successfully tackling the first wave, but this storm has shaken the nation,” Modi said in a radio address. His government has faced criticism that it let its guard down earlier this year, allowed big religious and political gatherings to take place when India’s cases fell to below 10,000 a day and did not plan for boosted healthcare systems. Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal extended a lockdown in the capital that had been due to end on Monday for a week. Covid-19 is killing one person every four minutes in the city.

Italy has joined other countries by imposing restrictions on travel from India to avert the spread of a Covid-19 variant as the Asian nation struggles with a surge in infections. Italy's Health Minister Roberto Speranza said on Twitter he had signed an order barring foreign travellers who have been in India in the past 14 days from entering the country. India, which is facing a health crisis, is battling a "double mutant" strain of Covid-19. On Sunday, the country posted the world's highest single-day increase in cases for a fourth day. Italian residents will be allowed to return from India with a negative test result at their departure and one at their arrival and then have to go into quarantine, the minister said. Those already in Italy and who travelled from India in the past 14 days were requested to undergo a swab. "Our scientists are at work to study the new Indian variant," Speranza said.

India set a new global record of the most number of Covid-19 infections in a day, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged all citizens to be vaccinated and exercise caution, saying the “storm” of infections had shaken the country. The United States said it was deeply concerned by the massive surge in coronavirus cases in India and was racing to send aid to India. India's number of cases surged by 349,691 in the past 24 hours, the fourth straight day of record peaks, and hospitals in Delhi and across the country are turning away patients after running out of medical oxygen and beds. "We were confident, our spirits were up after successfully tackling the first wave, but this storm has shaken the nation," Modi said in a radio address. Modi's government has faced criticism that it let its guard down, allowed big religious and political gatherings to take place when India's cases plummeted to below 10,000 a day and did not plan on building up the healthcare systems. Hospitals and doctors have put out urgent notices that they were unable to cope with the rush of patients. People were arranging stretchers and oxygen cylinders outside hospitals as they desperately pleaded for authorities to take patients in, Reuters photographers said. "Every day, it the same situation, we are left with two hours of oxygen, we only get assurances from the authorities," one doctor said on television. Outside a Sikh temple in Ghaziabad city on the outskirts of Delhi the street resembled an emergency ward of a hospital, but cramed with cars carrying Covid-19 patients gasping for breath as they were hooked up to hand held oxygen tanks. Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal extended a lockdown in the capital that was due to end on Monday for a week to try and stem the transmission of the virus which is killing one person every four minutes. "A lockdown was the last weapon we had to deal with the coronavirus but with cases rising so quickly we had to use this weapon," he said. India's total tally of infections stands at 16.96 million and deaths 192,311 after 2,767 more died overnight, health ministry data showed. n the last month alone, daily cases have gone up eight times and deaths by 10 times. Health experts say the death count is probably far higher. The country of 1.3 billion people is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, warned in an op-ed published Saturday in the Washington Post. "Our hearts go out to the Indian people in the midst of the horrific Covid-19 outbreak," U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on twitter. "We are working closely with our partners in the Indian government, and we will rapidly deploy additional support to the people of India and India's health care heroes." The United States has faced criticism in India for its export controls on raw materials for vaccines put in place via the Defense Production Act and an associated export embargo in February. The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine maker, this month urged U.S. President Joe Biden to lift the embargo on U.S. exports of raw materials that is hurting its production of AstraZeneca shots. Others such as U.S. Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi urged the Biden administration to release unused vaccines to India. "When people in India and elsewhere desperately need help, we can't let vaccines sit in a warehouse, we need to get them where they'll save lives," he said. India's surge is expected to peak in mid-May with the daily count of infections reaching half a million, the Indian Express said citing an internal government assessment.

The United States is deeply concerned by a massive surge in coronavirus cases in India and will race additional support to the Indian government and health care workers, a White House spokeswoman said on Saturday. "We are in active conversations at high levels and plan to quickly deploy additional support to the Government of India and Indian health care workers as they battle this latest severe outbreak. We will have more to share very soon," the spokeswoman told Reuters via email. Washington is under increasing pressure to do more to help India, the world's largest democracy and a strategic ally in President Joe Biden's efforts to counter China, as it grapples with a record-setting surge in coronavirus infections. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Friday called on the Biden administration to release millions of stored doses of AstraZeneca (AZN.L) vaccine for shipment to India, Brazil and other hard hit countries. The Indian government has deployed military planes and trains to get urgently needed oxygen to Delhi from other parts of the country and foreign countries, including Singapore. The number of cases across the country surged by a record daily rise of 349,691 on Sunday, for a total of 16.96 million cases, including 192,311 deaths, the health ministry said. The country of 1.3 billion people is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, warned in an op-ed published Saturday in the Washington Post. He said some 2,000 people were dying daily, but most experts estimated that the true number was five to 10 times that level. Officials from both countries are engaged at various levels to ensure a smooth supply of inputs and components from U.S. companies for production of Covid-19 vaccines in India, a spokesman at the Indian Embassy in Washington told Reuters. He said it was important to work together to identify ways to overcome bottlenecks in medical supply chains and expedite ongoing vaccination efforts. Jha called on Washington to send India oxygen, excess testing kits and high-quality personal protective equipment, including face masks, and medicines to treat Covid-19 patients, including sedatives and Remdesivir. Jha also urged the Biden administration to share excess vaccines with India and other countries in crisis, citing some 30 million unused doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that is in use elsewhere, but has not been authorized by U.S. regulators. Washington should also lift export controls on raw materials put in place via the Defense Production Act and an associated export embargo in February, Jha wrote. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Friday said US and Indian officials were working to find ways to help address the crisis, but gave no timetable for the support. She said the United States has already provided India some $1.4 billion in health assistance, emergency relief supplies, pandemic training for Indian state and local health officials, and ventilators.

India’s daily coronavirus death toll set a new record yesterday as the government battled to get oxygen to hospitals overwhelmed by the hundreds of thousands of new daily cases. Twenty patients died in one night at one New Delhi hospital suffering from oxygen shortages, medical officials said. A Delhi court said that the new pandemic wave had become “a tsunami”. Queues of Covid-19 patients and their fearful relatives were growing outside hospitals in major cities across India, the world’s new pandemic hotspot, which has now reported nearly one million new cases in three days. Another 2,624 deaths were reported in 24 hours, taking the official toll to nearly 190,000 since the pandemic started. More than 340,000 new cases were also reported, taking India’s total to 16.5mn, second only to the United States. But many experts are predicting the current wave will not peak for at least three weeks and that the real death toll and case count are much higher. Germany and Kuwait yesterday followed the United Arab Emirates, Britain and New Zealand in restricting travel from the country. Stung by criticism of its lack of preparation ahead of the wave of infections, the central government has organised special trains to get oxygen supplies to the worst-hit cities. The Indian air force was also being used to transport oxygen tankers and other supplies around the country and to bring oxygen equipment from Singapore. The government has also pressed industrialists to increase production of oxygen and life-saving drugs. One ‘oxygen express’ carrying 30,000 litres for hospitals arrived in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh state, where armed guards were waiting to escort trucks that would carry the oxygen to hospitals. Lucknow has been one of the worst-hit cities, with hospitals and crematoriums inundated with patients and bodies. Officials said the liquid oxygen would only be enough for half a day’s needs. Uttar Pradesh, a state of 200mn people, has imposed a weekend lockdown in a bid to curb the spread. In Delhi, the city government said it would begin setting up buffer stocks of oxygen. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said “the government should take over all oxygen plants through the army”. Many patients are dying outside hospitals in the capital because of the lack of beds and oxygen. Twenty patients at the Jaipur Golden Hospital in the capital died during the night as it suffered oxygen shortages, the hospital’s director told Indian media. He said that at one stage yesterday morning, the reserve was down to 30 minutes and pressure had been reduced for the 200 coronavirus patients, most of whom were on emergency oxygen. One charity has set up an overflow crematorium in a car park, with makeshift funeral pyres built to deal with the mounting deaths. A Delhi High Court hearing a special petition on the pandemic measures said yesterday: “We’re calling it a wave, it’s actually a tsunami.” A Covid-19 patient leaves a hospital in New Delhi, yesterday.

India's daily Covid death toll hit a new high Saturday, with hospitals facing oxygen shortages and crematoriums pushed to capacity, as US regulators said pharma giant Johnson & Johnson can restart a vaccine rollout paused due to worries over blood clots. India has become the new pandemic hotspot -- queues of Covid-19 patients and their fearful relatives have built up outside hospitals in major cities as another 2,624 deaths, a daily record, were reported in 24 hours. A surge blamed on a new virus variant and recent ‘super spreader’ public events has wrought devastation on the country of 1.3 billion, with charities forced to set up makeshift funeral pyres in a bid to reduce the strain on crematoriums. Indian social media and WhatsApp are white-hot with volunteer calls for vacant ICU beds and medicine and the central 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 Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh state at dawn on Saturday, where armed guards were waiting to escort trucks to hospitals. The grim scenes out of India were in stark contrast to the quickening vaccine rollouts in much of the western world, with US regulators approving the re-start of a rollout of J&J vaccines halted over blood clotting concerns. Health authorities had proposed a halt following instances of severe blood clots among a handful of the millions of Americans who received the jab -- a decision overturned after an expert panel said the shots' benefits exceeded possible dangers. According to data presented Friday, of 3.9 million women in the United States who got the Johnson & Johnson shot, 15 developed serious blood clots and three died. Most of the patients were younger than 50. There were no reported cases among men. - Hopes high in Europe – Fears over blood clots had also threatened to hamper vaccine roll-out efforts in Europe, where medical regulators Friday said the benefits of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine increase with age and still outweigh the risks for adults despite links to very rare side effects. The news came as the European Union also said it would have enough vaccines for most of its adult population by the summer -- a marked shift in tone for a bloc plagued by problems with vaccines, first failing to secure much-needed supplies and then relating to safety concerns. ‘I'm confident we will have enough doses to vaccinate 70 percent of all EU adults already in July,’ European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said. The EU chief had previously set a goal of late September for the target, but announced the new date during a visit to a Belgian vaccine plant that is ramping up production of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab. But despite the optimism the threat of the virus remains ever-present, with Germany set for a tough new lockdown Saturday, 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. Mounting cases have also forced Japan to issue a state of emergency in some areas just three months before the Olympics are due to open. The country's minister for virus response, Yasutoshi Nishimura, has warned of a ‘strong sense of crisis,’ saying current restrictions were not sufficient. In a fresh blow to trans-Tasman travel New Zealand on Friday paused arrivals from Western Australia, temporarily excluding the state's travellers from a quarantine-free bubble due to a fresh Covid-19 outbreak. It is the first major snag since the two countries opened their bubble on April 18, almost 400 days after both closed their international borders due to the pandemic.  

• India has world’s highest infection tally • Some of Delhi’s hospitals shut doors to new patients • Delhi government says army should handle oxygen deliveries People across India scrambled for life-saving oxygen supplies yesterday and patients lay dying outside hospitals as the capital recorded the equivalent of one death from Covid-19 every five minutes. For the second day running, the country’s overnight infection total was higher than ever recorded anywhere in the world since the pandemic began last year, at 332,730. India’s second wave has hit with such ferocity that hospitals are running out of oxygen, beds and anti-viral drugs. Many patients have been turned away because there was no space for them, doctors in Delhi said. Ambulance sirens sounded throughout the day in the deserted streets of the capital, one of India’s worst hit cities, where a lockdown is in place to try and stem the transmission of the virus. Mass cremations have been taking place as the crematoriums have run out of space. At Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in the northeast of the city, critical patients gasping for air arrived in ambulances and autorickshaws. Some waited for hours on trolleys outside and one, Shayam Narayan died before being admitted, a death unlikely to be counted in the city’s rising toll. “The system is broken,” his younger brother Raj said. Tushar Maurya, whose mother was being treated inside, urged anyone not in a serious condition to keep away. “The staff are doing their best but there is not enough oxygen,” she said. The India Today television channel showed angry relatives outside a hospital in Ahmedabad, the largest city in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat. “People are dying in front of hospitals while they wait for a bed to become available,” one man said. Another young man, who was not identified, said “Is this why we voted for this government? When we need it the most, we find ourselves all alone. Where will the poor go?” Health experts say India became complacent in the winter, when new cases were running at about 10,000 a day and seemed to be under control, and lifted restrictions to allow big gatherings. Modi himself has faced rare criticism for allowing political rallies and a Hindu religious festival, in which millions take a ritual bath in the Ganges river, to go ahead. He addressed many of the rallies with packed crowds and few people wearing masks. “Indians let down their collective guard,” Zarir Udwadia, a pulmonologist on Maharashtra’s task force, wrote in the Times of India newspaper. “We heard self-congratulatory declarations of victory from our leaders, now cruelly exposed as mere self-assured hubris.” Delhi’s government declared in February it had beaten back the coronavirus. Yesterday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal went on live television to plead for medical oxygen supplies in a virtual meeting with Modi, warning that many people would die. “All of the country’s oxygen plants should immediately be taken over by the government through the army,” he said. Police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, some wielding assault rifles, escorted trucks carrying oxygen to waiting hospitals in Delhi, while city governments traded accusations over hoarding. Modi said the government was making a “continuous effort” to increase oxygen supplies, including steps to divert industrial oxygen. In Washington, US health officials and a White House spokeswoman yesterday said they were weighing how to help India and had been in contact with officials there, but gave no details on any possible US action. In Mumbai, a fire broke out in a suburban hospital treating Covid-19 patients early yesterday, killing 13 people. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was concerned about the growing case load in India, which on Thursday passed the previous global high of 297,430 recorded in January in the United States, where case numbers have fallen. “The situation in India is a devastating reminder of what the virus can do,” he told a virtual briefing in Geneva. WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan said reducing transmission would be a “very difficult task” but the government was working on limiting mixing between people, which he said was essential. Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan in the United States, said it seemed as if there was no social safety net for Indians. “Everyone is fighting for their own survival and trying to protect their loved ones,” he said.”This is hard to watch.”

Thirteen Covid-19 patients died in a hospital fire on Friday in the latest tragedy to hit India's health care system as it buckles under a devastating wave of infections. The outbreak has been blamed on a new virus variant and lax government rules allowing huge religious and political gatherings to take place in recent months. The latest fire broke out in the hospital in the outskirts of Mumbai at around 3:00 am (2130 GMT), a local official told AFP. It has since been put out and the cause was being investigated. "There were 17 patients inside when a fire broke out in the ICU of Vijay Vallabh Hospital, out of which 13 died and four have been shifted to other facilities," fire department official Morrison Khavari said. India's health care system has long suffered from underfunding and the new Covid outbreak has seen critical shortages in oxygen, drugs and hospital beds, sparking desperate pleas for help. Earlier this week, 22 Covid-19 patients died at another hospital in the same state when the oxygen supply to their ventilators was disrupted by a leak. And four patients died when a blaze broke out in a private hospital in Maharashtra earlier this month. In March a fire at a Mumbai clinic killed 11. India has recorded around four million new infections this month alone, dashing hopes at the start of the year that the country may have weathered the worst of the pandemic. The surge in infections has been partially blamed on large-scale outdoor events including the vast Kumbh Mela gathering in Haridwar, which between January and this week attracted an estimated 25 million Hindu pilgrims, mostly without masks or social distancing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set on Friday to hold at least three crisis meetings on oxygen supplies and the availability of critical medicines. The capital New Delhi continues to be among the worst hit, with hundreds of thousands of new infections and many new hospitalisations in the last few days. Hospitals in the city have been posting daily desperate appeals over depleting oxygen supplies to the state and national government. "SOS - Less than an hour's oxygen supplies at Max Smart Hospital & Max Hospital Saket. Awaiting promised fresh supplies from INOX since 1 am... Over 700 patients admitted, need immediate assistance," Max Healthcare, one of the biggest private hospital chains, said on Twitter early Friday morning. Other private hospital chains in the region have posted similar video messages and social media posts in recent days. At least six hospitals ran out of oxygen supplies in the Indian capital late Thursday night, with several others left with just a few hours' worth. "25 sickest patients have died in last 24 hrs Oxygen will last another 2 hrs... Major crisis likely. Lives of another 60 sickest patients at risk, need urgent intervention," the medical director of the Sir Gangaram Hospital in New Delhi said in a statement.

Tributes poured in Friday for popular Bollywood music composer Shravan Rathod, who died in a Mumbai hospital aged 66 after being diagnosed with Covid-19. Rathod worked with fellow composer Nadeem Saifi to create some of Bollywood's most enduring hits of the 1990s, with the duo winning multiple awards for their soundtracks during the decade. He was hospitalised after contracting Covid-19 and died late Thursday, his musician son Sanjeev Rathod told the Press Trust of India. His death comes as India battles a vicious second wave of the pandemic, and on the heels of a particularly tragic period for Indian cinema, with the film industry losing many luminaries over the past year. Much-loved singer S.P. Balasubrahmanyam died in September aged 74 following a prolonged battle with Covid, while 42-year-old composer Wajid Khan passed away in June after contracting the virus. The industry also lost leading actors Irrfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor to other illnesses last April, while the June suicide of young star Sushant Singh Rajput shocked the country. Oscar-winner A.R. Rahman led the tributes to Rathod, with the ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ composer tweeting: ‘Our Music community and your fans will miss you immensely’. The duo known as Nadeem-Shravan were responsible for many of Bollywood's biggest romantic chartbusters in films such as 1991's ‘Phool Aur Kaante’ (‘Flowers and Thorns’) and ‘Saajan’ (‘Beloved’) that helped top stars such as Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn cement their places in the industry. ‘Shravan (and Nadeem) walked 30 years alongside me in my career with the evergreen album for Phool Aur Kaante. Very sad, very unfortunate to hear of his demise last night,’ Devgn tweeted. A heartbroken Saifi, who had earlier asked fans to pray for Rathod's recovery, said on Facebook: ‘I have lost my younger brother today.’ Leading producer Boney Kapoor, who collaborated with the duo on two films, tweeted that he was ‘deeply pained to hear of the demise of music Director Shravan. Have wonderful memories of working with him’.  

The daughter of Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte has topped the latest opinion poll on preferred presidential candidates for an election next year, a contest she insists she has no interest in joining. The survey by the independent Pulse Asia, conducted between Feb. 22 and March 3, showed 27% of 2,400 respondents would vote for Davao city mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio above 13 other suggested candidates. It was the second successive time Sara Duterte, 42, has topped Pulse Asia's survey on potential leaders. She recently told Reuters there was no chance she would run next year. Her father has also stated publicly that she should not enter the race. But few in the Philippines are convinced amid a flurry of social media activity and unofficial campaigns backing her to succeed her father, who cannot seek re-election under the country's constitution. Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the country's late dictator, was in second place in the poll, with 13% of the vote. Senator Grace Poe, who ran against Rodrigo Duterte in the 2016 election, and Manila city mayor Francisco ‘Isko Moreno’ Domagoso, were both third with 12%, and global boxing icon and Senator Manny Pacquiao trailed them with 11%. Vice President Leni Robredo, a former human rights lawyer who leads the main opposition and is a staunch rival of Duterte, trailed that group, with 7%. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2%. None of the 13 suggested candidates have formally declared their interest in the presidency. The election is more than a year away, and political analysts have said that a great deal could change prior to the May 9 polls.  

 * India has world's highest infection tally for second day * Some of Delhi's hospitals shut doors to new patients * Delhi government says army should handle oxygen deliveries People scrambled for life-saving oxygen supplies across India on Friday and patients lay dying outside hospitals as the capital recorded the equivalent of one death from Covid-19 every five minutes. For the second day running, the country's overnight infection total was higher than ever recorded anywhere in the world since the pandemic began last year, at 332,730. India's second wave has hit with such ferocity that hospitals are running out of oxygen, beds and anti-viral drugs. Many patients have been turned away because there was no space for them, doctors in Delhi said. Ambulance sirens sounded throughout the day in the deserted streets of the capital, one of India's worst hit cities, where a lockdown is in place to try and stem the transmission of the virus. Mass cremations have been taking place as the crematoriums have run out of space and families have had to wait for two days to cremate the dead. At Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in the north east of the city, critical patients gasping for air arrived in ambulances and autorickshaws. One man among half a dozen people waiting for hours on trolleys outside on Friday died before being admitted. "The staff are doing their best but there is not enough oxygen," Tushar Maurya, whose mother is being treated at the hospital, told Reuters. "If you are not in a serious condition please don't come. It isn't safe." The India Today television channel showed angry relatives outside a hospital in Ahmedabad, the largest city in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat. "People are dying in front of hospitals while they wait for a bed to become available," one man said. Another young man, who was not identified, said "Is this why we voted for this government? When we need it the most, we find ourselves all alone. Where will the poor go?" Health experts say India became complacent in the winter, when new cases were running at about 10,000 a day and seemed to be under control, and lifted restrictions to allow big gatherings. Modi himself has faced rare criticism for allowing political rallies and a Hindu religious festival, in which millions take a ritual bath in the Ganges river, to go ahead. He addressed many of the rallies with packed crowds and few people wearing masks. "Indians let down their collective guard," Zarir Udwadia, a pulmonologist on Maharashtra's task force, wrote in the Times of India newspaper. "We heard self-congratulatory declarations of victory from our leaders, now cruelly exposed as mere self-assured hubris." Delhi's government declared in February it had beaten back the coronavirus. On Friday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal went on live television to plead for medical oxygen supplies in a virtual meeting with Modi, warning that many people would die. "All of the country's oxygen plants should immediately be taken over by the government through the army," he said. Police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, some wielding assault rifles, escorted trucks to waiting hospitals in Delhi, while city governments traded accusations over hoarding. Modi said government was making a "continuous effort" to increase oxygen supplies, including steps to divert industrial oxygen. A fire broke out in a hospital treating Covid-19 patients in a Mumbai suburb early on Friday, killing 13 people, underlining the stress the hospitals were under. On Wednesday, 22 patients died at a public hospital in Maharashtra where Mumbai is located when oxygen supply ran out due to a leaking tank. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was concerned about the growing case load in India, which on Thursday passed the previous global high of 297,430 recorded in January in the United States, where case numbers have fallen. "The situation in India is a devastating reminder of what the virus can do," he told a virtual briefing in Geneva. WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan said reducing transmission would be a "very difficult task" but the government was working on limiting mixing between people, which he said was essential. Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan in the United States, said it seemed as if there was no social safety net for Indians. "Everyone is fighting for their own survival and trying to protect their loved ones," he said. "This is hard to watch."

India recorded the world’s highest daily tally of 314,835 Covid-19 infections yesterday as a second wave of the pandemic raised new fears about the ability of crumbling health services to cope. Health officials across northern and western India, including the capital, New Delhi, said they were in crisis, with most hospitals full and running out of oxygen. Some doctors advised patients to stay at home, while a crematorium in the eastern city of Muzaffarpur said it was being overwhelmed with bodies, and grieving families had to wait their turn. A crematorium east of Delhi built funeral pyres in its parking lot. “Right now there are no beds, no oxygen. Everything else is secondary,” said Shahid Jameel, a virologist and director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University. “The infrastructure is crumbling.” Six hospitals in New Delhi had run out of oxygen, according to a tally shared by the city government, and the city’s deputy chief minister said neighbouring states were holding back supplies for their own needs. “It might become difficult for hospitals here to save lives,” Manish Sisodia said in a televised address. Another 2,104 people died in the space of a day, taking India’s cumulative toll to 184,657, according to the health ministry data. The previous record rise in cases was in the US, which had 297,430 new cases on one day in January, though its infection rate has since fallen sharply. Television showed images of people with empty oxygen cylinders crowding refilling facilities, hoping to save relatives in hospital. In the western city of Ahmedabad, a man strapped to an oxygen cylinder lay in the back of a car outside a hospital as he waited for a bed. “Helplessness,” tweeted former foreign secretary Nirupama Menon Rao. “India weeps.” “We never thought a second wave would hit us so hard,” Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, executive chairman of the healthcare firm Biocon, wrote in the Economic Times. “Complacency led to unanticipated shortages of medicines, medical supplies and hospital beds.” Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said the city needed about 5,000 more intensive care beds. Similar surges of infections, notably in South America, are threatening to overwhelm other health services. China said it was willing to help India, although it was not immediately clear what this might consist of. Only a tiny fraction of the Indian population has received a vaccination. Authorities have announced vaccines will be available to anyone over 18 from May 1, but experts say there will not be enough for the 600mn people who will become eligible. Health experts say India let its guard down during the winter, when daily cases were about 10,000 and seemed to be under control, and lifted restrictions to allow big gatherings. New, more infectious variants of the virus, in particular a “double mutant” variant that originated in India, have helped accelerate the surge, but many also blame the politicians. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government ordered an extensive lockdown in the early stages of the pandemic but has been wary of the economic costs of more tough restrictions. UAE suspends flights from India The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced the suspension of all flights from India, including transit passengers, as coronavirus cases in the South Asian country spiked to global records, according to an AFP report. Some 300 flights a week were operating between the UAE and India before the ban was announced, according to local media, making the air corridor one of the busiest in the world. Passengers who have transited through India in the last 14 days are also not permitted to board from any other point to the UAE, reports added. “The decision to suspend flights came after studying and evaluating the epidemiological situation in India,” the General Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement carried on state news agency WAM. The GCAA said those coming from India through other countries must stay in that third destination for at least 14 days. UAE nationals and passengers in private jets are exempt from that requirement. Cargo flights between the two countries will continue after the ban, which comes into effect at 11.59pm on April 24 for a period of 10 days “that can be extended”. “This comes in response to the proactive precautionary and preventive health measures issued by all authorities concerned in the country to limit the spread” of the pandemic, WAM cited authorities as saying.

India posted a global record of almost 315,000 new Covid infections on Thursday as hospitals in New Delhi sent out desperate warnings that patients could die without fresh oxygen supplies. India's long-underfunded health system is being stretched to the limit by a devastating second wave blamed on a ‘double mutant’ variant and ‘super-spreader’ mass gatherings. Health ministry data on Thursday showed 314,835 new infections in the past 24 hours, the most of any country since the pandemic began, taking total cases to 15.9 million, the world's second highest. There were 2,074 fatalities, bringing the total death toll to almost 185,000. The number of deaths and cases in India are however considerably lower on a per capita basis than many other countries. Major private and government-run hospitals in New Delhi have sent out urgent appeals to the central government, calling for immediate supply of oxygen for hundreds of patients on ventilator support. On Wednesday, nearly 500 tonnes of oxygen was supplied to Delhi but this fell short of the required 700 tonnes per day. The megacity's government, run by a different party to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's national administration, has accused neighbouring states governed by Modi's BJP of holding up supplies. Late Wednesday the Delhi High Court ordered the government to ensure safe passage of oxygen supplies from factories to hospitals across India. ‘We cannot let people die due to lack of oxygen... you beg, borrow and steal but have to provide,’ the judges said, asking why the government is ‘not waking up to the gravity of the situation’. Highlighting the strain on health authorities, 22 patients died in a hospital in western India after an oxygen leak cut off the supply to 60 ventilators for half an hour on Wednesday. Recent months have seen mass gatherings, including millions attending the Kumbh Mela religious festival, as well as political rallies, lavish weddings and cricket matches against England. Production of key coronavirus drugs slowed or even halted at some factories and there were delays inviting bids for oxygen generation plants, according to press reports. Distraught relatives are now being forced to pay exorbitant rates on the black market for medicines and oxygen and WhatsApp groups are white-hot with desperate pleas for help. States across India have imposed restrictions, with Delhi in a week-long lockdown, all non-essential shops shut in Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh set for a weekend shutdown. The United States now advises against travelling to India, even for those fully vaccinated, while Britain has added India to its ‘red list’. Hong Kong and New Zealand have banned flights. India's inoculation programme has also hit supply hurdles, prompting New Delhi to put the brakes on exports of the AstraZeneca shot, which is manufactured locally by the Serum Institute. India has administered more than 130 million shots so far and from May 1 all adults will be eligible for a jab.    

• Over 295,000 test positive for Covid in a single day • Delhi hospitals scramble as oxygen supplies run out At least 24 Covid-19 patients in western India died yesterday when the oxygen supply to their ventilators ran out amid a nationwide shortage of the gas and a surge in infections. Maharashtra State Health Minister Rajesh Tope confirmed the deaths at a hospital in Nashik city and said the hospital’s oxygen supply ran out because a tanker refilling it suffered a leak. Oxygen was running scarce throughout the country. “The leakage was spotted at the tank supplying oxygen for these patients. The interrupted supply could be linked to the deaths of the patients in the hospital,” Tope said. Hospitals in Delhi, the capital, and elsewhere have warned that their supplies of medical oxygen given to severely ill Covid-19 patients are running low. Max Healthcare, the largest private sector healthcare provider in Delhi and its suburbs, said some of its hospitals had barely two hours’ supply of oxygen. Television showed images of people with empty oxygen cylinders crowding refilling facilities in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, as they scrambled to save stricken relatives in hospital. The situation was so severe that some people tried to loot an oxygen tanker, forcing authorities to beef up security, according to the health minister of the northern state of Haryana. India now faces a coronavirus “storm” overwhelming its health system, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a national address on Tuesday, adding that authorities were working with states and private firms to deliver oxygen with speed. Authorities in Maharashtra, which is already under partial lockdown, late yesterday ordered additional restrictions on the movement of people within the city and state until May 1 to curb the coronavirus’ spread. The order said all offices, except those providing essential services, must operate with 15% staff. Travel by private vehicles is permitted only for medical emergencies, and only medical workers and government employees may ride the normally popular train system. India, the world’s second-most populous nation reported 295,041 new coronavirus infections yesterday — the biggest daily rise reported in any country — stretching its hospitals to breaking point, officials said. Only the United States had a slightly higher one-day rise of 297,430 cases in January, though its tally has since fallen sharply. India’s 2,023 deaths were also its highest in the pandemic. Adding to the sense of alarm, the Serum Institute of India, which manufactures the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, said it will not be able to raise its monthly output to 100 million doses from the current 60 million-70 million until July, compared to its previous forecast of late May. The delay could slow India’s immunisation drive, which the government has opened for all adults from next month to try to stem the deadly second wave. Health experts said India had let its guard down when the virus seemed to be under control during the winter, allowing big gatherings such as weddings and festivals. Modi is himself facing criticism for addressing packed political rallies for local elections and allowing a religious festival to go ahead where millions gathered. India has so far administered nearly 130 million doses of vaccine, the most in the world after the United States and China but still small relative to its population of 1.35 billion people. Vaccine doses have run short in many states though inoculations are currently restricted to frontline workers and those aged above 45.

India's brutal new Covid outbreak set records on Wednesday with more than 2,000 deaths in 24 hours as hospitals in New Delhi ran perilously low on oxygen. India has been in the grips of a second wave of infections blamed on lax government rules and a new ‘double mutant’ virus variant, adding almost 3.5 million new cases this month alone. Health ministry data on Wednesday showed a record 2,023 fatalities and 295,000 new cases in 24 hours, among the world's biggest daily case totals and on a par with numbers seen in the United States during a deadly surge in January. In an address to the nation on Tuesday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the country of 1.3 billion people was ‘once again fighting a big fight’. ‘The situation was under control till a few weeks back, and then this second corona wave came like a storm,’ he said. There had been hopes that despite its packed cities and poor health care, India had managed to dodge largely unscathed a pandemic that has killed more than three million people around the world. Recent weeks have seen mass gatherings including millions attending the Kumbh Mela religious festival, political rallies as well as lavish weddings and cricket matches against England. Production of key coronavirus drugs slowed or even halted at some factories and there were delays inviting bids for oxygen generation plants, according to press reports. Distraught relatives are now being forced to pay exorbitant rates on the black market for medicine and oxygen and WhatsApp groups are awash with desperate pleas for help. ‘I am scared for my parents and relatives more than I am scared for myself because they are not young anymore and getting admitted into a hospital right now is next to impossible,’ one Delhi resident told AFP. - 'Major crisis' – Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who on Tuesday went into self-isolation after his wife tested positive, tweeted late Tuesday that some hospitals in the capital ‘are left with just a few hours of oxygen’. The health minister of the megacity of around 25 million inhabitants, Satyendar Jain, urged the federal government to ‘restore oxygen supply chain to avert a major crisis’. Hospitals in the western state of Maharashtra and its teeming capital Mumbai, the epicentre of the surge, were also experiencing dire shortages, press reports said. ‘Normally we would shift some patients to other hospitals... none in the city have spare oxygen,’ NDTV quoted one doctor in the state as saying. ‘The (central government), states and private sectors are trying to ensure every needy patient gets oxygen,’ Modi said in his address. States across India have imposed restrictions, with Delhi in a week-long lockdown, all non-essential shops shut in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh set for a weekend shutdown. Delhi's lockdown prompted tens of thousands of migrant workers to flee the megacity, in scenes reminiscent of the national shutdown a year ago that inflicted economic and human misery. The United States now advises against travelling to India, even for those fully vaccinated, while Britain has added India to its ‘red list’. Hong Kong and New Zealand have banned flights. India has administered more than 130 million shots so far and from May 1 all adults will be eligible for a shot. Some local authorities have however been running short of supplies, and India has put the brakes on exports of the AstraZeneca shot. ‘I think in the coming week or two we will have a more quantitative estimate of and if any effect of this variant on the vaccine,’ Rakesh Mishra from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology told AFP. In total India has recorded 15.6 million cases, second only to the US, and more than 180,000 deaths, though it is behind many countries on a per capita basis.  

Problems that have delayed AstraZeneca supplies to the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility have been resolved, Unicef said yesterday, saying it should receive 65mn doses by end-May from manufacturers outside India. The rollout of Covid vaccines has been disrupted by supply shortfalls in many countries, aggravated by a temporary hold on exports of the inoculation made by the Serum Institute of India (SII) as the country battles to contain a surge in infections. “The initial challenges related to release of vaccines due to ramping up a new supply chain and production across different continents have now been resolved,” the UN agency responsible for distributing vaccines through the programme said in an e-mail. “At this point, Unicef expects around 65mn doses of Covid-19 vaccines from suppliers outside of India will be available for supply through the end of May to 80 countries.” COVAX is also holding talks with New Delhi for SII to resume supplies of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Unicef said. In addition to the 65mn doses expected from outside India, mostly made in South Korea, it also anticipates receiving 50mn doses next month from the SII compared with almost none this month. COVAX had expected a total of more than 100mn doses from SII between February and May, excluding supplies for India, but has so far received only about 18.2mn. As India battles its biggest jump in coronavirus infections and opens up vaccinations to all its adults from next month, SII is unlikely to be able to restart major exports soon. “While discussions on the resumption of SII deliveries continue, COVAX will continue to transmit vaccines from other delivery partners,” such as Pfizer/BioNTech or AstraZeneca outside India, Unicef said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday called on Indians to step up their efforts to battle the coronavirus so that fresh lockdowns are not necessary, as the vast nation reels from an explosion of cases and the capital runs dangerously short of oxygen supplies. In his first address since the start of the record-breaking new wave of infections, Modi acknowledged that the nation of 1.3bn people was “once again fighting a big fight”. “The situation was under control till a few weeks back, and then this second corona wave came like a storm,” the Indian leader told the nation in a televised speech. “It is a big challenge but we have to — together, with our courage and determination — overcome it...We have to avoid lockdowns and we need to focus on mini containment zones instead.” India has been struggling to rein in its raging outbreak, with hospitals running out of beds and regional governments forced to reimpose economically painful restrictions. The nation has recorded more than 3mn new infections and 18,000 deaths this month, bringing its caseload to the world’s second-highest, after the US. Its capital and worst-hit city New Delhi entered a week-long lockdown on Monday, with parks, cinemas and malls closed. Maharashtra state, the epicentre of the recent surge and home to financial capital Mumbai, yesterday further tightened restrictions on grocery shops and home deliveries. All non-essential shops and malls in the western state are currently shut until May 1. Uttar Pradesh, home to some 240mn people, yesterday announced a weekend lockdown from Friday evening, whilst Telangana state in the south became the latest to impose a night curfew. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who yesterday went into self-isolation after his wife tested positive, called on the national government to supply the capital with oxygen amid a severe shortage. “Some hospitals are left with just a few hours of oxygen,” he tweeted late yesterday. Delhi’s lockdown prompted tens of thousands of migrant workers to flee the mega-city, in scenes reminiscent of the national shutdown a year ago that inflicted economic and human misery. Modi said states had to assure migrant workers of support and vaccines so that they would not return to their villages. “I appeal to states to avoid lockdowns and use them as a last resort,” he added. The huge surge in infections saw the US update its travel advisory for India, after the state department announced on Monday it would apply “do not travel” guidance to about 80% of countries worldwide, citing the unprecedented risk posed by the pandemic. “Even fully vaccinated travellers...should avoid all travel to India,” the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Singapore also boosted restrictions on arrivals from India yesterday, adding a week to the previously required 14-day quarantine period. These moves follow Britain’s decision on Monday to add India to its “red list”, and Hong Kong’s ban on all flights from the country. Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi, a senior leader of the opposition Congress party and scion of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, tweeted yesterday that he had tested positive but had “mild symptoms”, one day after former prime minister Manmohan Singh, 88, was admitted to hospital with the virus.

At least 53 passengers on a flight from New Delhi to Hong Kong have tested positive for coronavirus, authorities said Tuesday, as the Chinese financial hub introduced an emergency ban on arrivals from India over a new wave of cases. The passengers flew into Hong Kong on a flight run by Indian operator Vistara on April 4. The positive tests are significant as Hong Kong is regularly recording fewer daily cases than the total detected on the flight since it brought a fourth wave under control in January. Hong Kong authorities have now imposed a two-week ban on all flights from India, Pakistan and the Philippines that began on Monday, categorising the countries as ‘extremely high risk’ after detecting the N501Y mutant Covid-19 strain for the first time in the local community. India is battling skyrocketing infections, with hospitals running out of beds and the government forced to reimpose economically painful restrictions. Its capital New Delhi went into lockdown from Monday night as officials scramble to get the surging cases under control. The Vistara aircraft can hold 188 passengers but Hong Kong authorities did not announce how many it had been carrying. The positive coronavirus results surfaced while the arrivals were undergoing Hong Kong's mandatory three-week quarantine period, one of the strictest entry regimes in the world. All travellers flying into the territory from 25 places deemed high risk including Britain, South Africa, India, Pakistan and the United States must also provide a negative test within the 72 hours prior to departure. Several coronavirus cases have also been detected on flights arriving in Hong Kong from Mumbai, authorities said. Densely populated Hong Kong was one of the first places to be hit by the coronavirus, but the tough entry conditions, strict social distancing measures and universal mask wearing have helped keep infections to just over 11,700 with 209 deaths. Around 9.8 percent of the city's 7.5 million population have been vaccinated so far.