India on Friday posted another global record for daily coronavirus infections, pushing worldwide cases past 150 million as a pandemic that has killed almost 3.2 million worldwide continues to wreak devastation. | AFP
India recorded another 385,000 cases in the past 24 hours — a new global record — and almost 3,500 deaths, according to official data that many experts suspect falls short of the true toll.
Compounding India’s woes as cases soared has been its failure to get a much-needed vaccine programme off the ground. But several states have warned they do not have sufficient stocks, and the expanded rollout is threatened by administrative bickering, confusion over prices and technical glitches on the government’s digital vaccine platform.Also struggling to inoculate a vast country facing a surge in cases is Brazil, which has one of the highest mortality rates in the pandemic, at 189 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
The country’s health regulators this week said they would reject the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, citing evidence it carrieda live version of adenovirus, a common cold-causing virus.Since the discovery of the virus, more than 50.2 million cases have been recorded in Europe — more than a third of worldwide infections.
And in neighbouring Belgium, the country’s renowned beer brewers hit hard by months of lockdown are rushing to ensure adequate supplies are available when establishments reopen next week.