India and Thailand reported record cases of coronavirus daily on Thursday, as a new wave of infections, coupled with a shortage of hospital beds and vaccines, could threaten Asia’s recovery from the pandemic.
India on Thursday transgressed 200,000 daily infections for the first time and the financial center of Mumbai closed as many hospitals have a shortage of beds and oxygen supply.
“The situation is terrible. We are a hospital with 900 beds, but there are about 60 patients waiting and we do not have room for that,” said Avinash Gawande, an official at Government Medical College and Hospital in Nagpur, a commercial case, said. center in Maharashtra.
The surge was the seventh record daily increase in the past eight days, taking the total tax to 14.1 million, just second only to the United States.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gathered on Wednesday after a religious festival in the north of the country, expressing fear of another increase in COVID-19 cases.
Increasing infections have also put pressure on the healthcare system in Manila and Bangkok.
In the Philippines, many hospitals in the capital, where about 13 million people live, are filling up as the number of cases increases. Confirmed cases of coronavirus have reached 266,489 alone in the last 30 days, accounting for 30% of the country’s total infections.
Some families of COVID-19 patients have taken to social media to share their trials with finding hospitals. Some traveled outside the capital to find a health care facility, or spent long hours in line.
Thailand on Thursday reported 1,543 new cases of coronavirus, the sharpest increase since the start of the pandemic and the fourth record rise this week. read more
The increase in the hospital bed has increased as all positive cases have to be included under Thai rules. A total of 8 973 patients are treated.
While the country is considering lock-in measures, its neighboring country, Cambodia, on Thursday imposed a lock-in in its capital and a satellite district as an outbreak that began in late February, matters rose almost tenfold to 4,874 within two months. read more
Bangladesh also began a week-long closure on Wednesday with severe restrictions, as infections have reached about 7,000 cases a day from less than 300 in February over the past two weeks.
SPILL
As the gap between developed and developing countries’ access to COVID-19 vaccines widens, the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Wednesday called on vaccine manufacturers to increase technology transfer to bring in manufacturing capacity.
Thailand, for example, has vaccinated 0.4% of its population, with lagging neighbors like Singapore at 14.6%.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who became director of the WTO in March, also called on its members to reduce restrictions on the export of vaccines and to facilitate logistics and customs procedures.
In Australia, which abandoned its vaccination target earlier this week due to shipping delays and newly imposed restrictions on the use of AstraZeneca (AZN.L)’s shot, a leading medical association opposed a government plan to create mass vaccination centers, with reference to logistical challenges. read more
“You need to find a workforce from somewhere, and we are not aware of the large number of registered nurses and doctors available to run these centers,” President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), Omar Khorshid, told the local radio said.
A senior ruling party official said Thursday that Japan, whose vaccination rate has been affected by tight supplies, could cancel this year’s Olympics in Tokyo if the coronavirus crisis gets too severe, less than 100 days before the scheduled start of matches. read more
“If it seems impossible to do more, we should definitely stop,” Toshihiro Nikai, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, told broadcaster TBS.
Japan is battling rising coronavirus infections, with numbers rising in Tokyo after the government ended a state of emergency, and Osaka has had a record number of cases.
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