April 6 ------ India ramped up its fight against coronavirus on Monday to try to dampen record-breaking daily infection rates, as Saudi Arabia said it would allow only “immunized” pilgrims into its holiest sites. The pandemic has not abated despite more than 660 million jabs having been doled out across the world, with vaccine-manufacturing powerhouse India registering more than 100,000 cases in a single day for the first time and infections in Iran hitting a four-month high.
The latest outbreak in India is focused on Maharashtra state, home to financial hub Mumbai, which tightened its overnight curfew and closed restaurants and places of worship on weekends in response. “The fear of Covid-19 has gone away. Most people don’t wear masks properly, including many of my passengers,” Surjit Singh, an auto-rickshaw driver in the capital New Delhi, told AFP.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is trying to resist growing pressure to impose a new national lockdown, after a shutdown in March last year caused widespread misery. Britain is among the pace-setters for inoculations with almost half its population having received at least one jab, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson was able to announce on Monday a rollback of lockdown measures for England. However, he refused to be drawn on a much-anticipated plan to lift curbs on overseas travel, saying only that he hoped summer holidays abroad would be possible without committing to a timetable.
In sharp contrast, many other countries in Europe are lagging behind Britain for vaccinations and have been forced to reimpose deeply unpopular shutdowns to battle stubbornly high caseloads.
Source: mb.com.ph