India is running out of vaccines just as a new wave of covid-19 infections batters the country, complicating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to inoculate the nation’s workforce while threatening to drag out the world’s worst health-care crisis.
In the financial hub of Mumbai, vaccinations began later than usual Monday as vials ran low. The city has enough stock for the next three days, but those getting their second dose will be given priority, the municipality said. This shortage is likely to get acute starting Saturday when the government plans to expand the eligibility pool to those between 18 and 45.
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India is still struggling to get back on its feet as overwhelmed hospitals ran out of oxygen while new cases have risen to about 3.5 million since mid-April. Vaccine production has also been hit by the stockpiling of certain essential raw materials by the U.S.
In a tweet Sunday, President Joe Biden signaled help is on the way. Ingredients needed to produce Covishield, the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine made in India, have been identified and “will immediately be made available,” Emily Horne, a spokesperson for U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan, said in a statement.
India reported an unprecedented 352,991 new infections and 2,812 deaths Monday for the previous 24 hours, though the actual toll may be much higher. These grim numbers are likely to continue for about a month, said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy in New Delhi.
“The latest epidemiological projections are that the peak won’t be reached for another two or three weeks nationwide,” Laxminarayan told Bloomberg on Monday. “The projections that are being used are that the peak will be at the point where the numbers will probably be three or four times that we have right now.”
The latest wave of infections, which Modi called a “storm,” follows an unexplained lull earlier this year, during which India exported or gifted more than 60 million doses of its vaccine.
The deepening crisis stands in contrast to the improving picture in wealthier nations like the U.S., Britain and Israel, which have vaccinated relatively large shares of their populations and have seen deaths and infections plummet since winter. India has four times the population of the U.S. but on Monday had 11 times as many new infections.
The resurgence in cases is also threatening to hinder the recovery of the $2.9 trillion economy, which slid into recession last year because of lockdowns. Modi is reluctant to back a nationwide lockdown this year, but has left it to local governments to decide on measures needed to curb the spread of the virus.
The country’s two main cities — Mumbai and the capital, New Delhi — have already imposed tight restrictions on the movement of people. New Delhi extended its lockdown through Sunday. The state of Maharashtra, home to the nation’s financial hub, tightened its curbs last week.
The lockdowns are making it harder for citizens to commute and access vaccination centers, adding another layer of challenge.
The Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital in New Delhi, which has the capacity to vaccinate at least 600 people a day, is seeing only about 400 turn up, said medical superintendent P.S. Nayyer.
Additional help is also coming from the U.S. Development Finance Corporation. The agency will fund an expansion of the production capability of Indian vaccine maker Biological E Ltd., or BioE, to at least 1 billion doses by the end of 2022. Ventilators, therapeutics, rapid-test kits and personal protective equipment will be sent as well, according to the statement from Sullivan’s office.
CRITICS QUIETED
As India’s virus cases surge, officials have ordered Twitter to take down social media posts critical of the government’s pandemic response.
At least 52 tweets from prominent figures, including opposition politicians, journalists and filmmakers, have been censored, according to the Lumen Database, a Harvard University initiative that tracks takedown requests. While some of the posts in question contain potentially misleading information, others simply document the scale of India’s disastrous outbreak or express frustration with the country’s leaders.
One of the blocked posts, by an opposition party leader, said people in India would “never forgive” Modi “for underplaying the corona situation in the country and letting so many people die due to mismanagement.” Another, from a Reuters photographer, contained images of grieving mourners, packed hospitals and a busy cremation site. Additional censored posts decried shortages of coronavirus tests, showed patients being treated in makeshift tents or called for Modi’s resignation.
Twitter says the posts, which remain visible in the United States and other parts of the world, are being blocked in India in accordance with local regulations.
“When we receive a valid legal request, we review it under both the Twitter Rules and local law,” a Twitter spokesperson told The Washington Post. “If the content violates Twitter’s Rules, the content will be removed from the service. If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only.”
India cited its Information Technology Act of 2000 to request that the tweets be removed, according to the Lumen Database’s records. While it’s not clear what section of the law was cited, Reuters notes that New Delhi typically points to a clause that allows censorship in the name of protecting public order and the “sovereignty and integrity of India.”
India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology told CNN that it had asked social media platforms to remove posts that were creating “panic” by “using unrelated, old and out of the context images or visuals.”
Information for this article was contributed by P.R. Sanjai, Dhwani Pandya and Bibhudatta Pradhan of Bloomberg News (WPNS); by Antonia Noori Farzan and Claire Parker of The Washington Post; and by Sheikh Saaliq of The Associated Press.
