Written by Daniel Maloney (News Writer)
While Covid cases are decreasing heavily in the United States, India is battling a major surge of 400,000+ cases per day. India has reported more than 8.3 million new cases in the past 30 days and over 3000 new deaths every single day. As of Tuesday, 253,620 people have died from the virus in India. Other nearby countries like Nepal and Sri Lanka also see an uptick in positive cases, most likely from India.
With so many cases, and many of them serious, Small towns in India are not ready and equipped with the right infrastructure and medical devices for such a big outbreak. Many people are cramming into small hotels, trying to find oxygen tanks for people in need. The doctors can’t spend much time on patients, because they have to move to other people. “We are also not getting much time between the time a person gets infected to the time he becomes serious,” said Ramakant Pandey, the top district official at Bijnor.
Along with the huge outbreak, experts warn that it could lead to new Covid variants. India first discovered the B.1.617 variant, in October of last year. This variant mutation is known to be more contagious, more deadly, and more likely to be resistant to the current vaccine.
As India keeps seeing an increase in cases, its vaccine rates are dropping heavily. The government said they have given about two million doses this month, a lot lower than the 3.6 million doses they saw last month. Only 3 percent of the Indian population has been fully vaccinated and only 9.2 percent have only seen their first shot. It is highly unlikely to hit India’s goal of 300 million vaccinated by August.
On Monday, more than 40 bodies have washed up on the Gahmar (a small village in India) river coast, it is unknown how they got there, but officials suspect they are COVID victims.
While India has been seeing an enormous peak in cases, the U.S. has been seeing a huge decrease in cases. On Monday, the U.S. had reported only 30,000 new cases and only 300 new deaths, 22% lower than a week ago.
The U.S is averaging about 2.1 million reported vaccinations every day, it has a significant decrease from last week of about 3.6 million a day, but is now showing signs of steadying between 1.9 to 2.1 million vaccinations a day. The U.S has fully vaccinated 34.8% percent of the population or 115 million people, and 46% has received at least one shot.
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