April 28 coronavirus news

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aunt has become the latest casualty of the country’s devastating coronavirus outbreak.  

Narmadaben Modi, died Tuesday after contracting Covid-19, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency, attributing family members.

The 80-year-old was undergoing treatment for the virus when she died in hospital, PTI said.

"Our aunt Narmadaben was admitted to the civil hospital some ten days ago after her condition deteriorated following coronavirus infection," said Modi's younger brother, Prahlad Modi, according to PTI. "She breathed her last at the hospital today," he added.

The prime minister, who has yet to publicly comment on his aunt's death, has been heavily criticized in recent weeks over his handling of India’s coronavirus crisis -- currently the world's worst outbreak.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has continued to hold rallies for municipal elections in spite of surging coronavirus cases across India. Campaigning for municipal elections is underway in southern Telangana state, with images posted by the official BJP Telangana account on Monday showing crowds of people gathered at rallies in Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation -- with many of them not wearing masks or adhering to social distancing guidelines.

Earlier this month, the Indian government attempted to assuage criticism of Modi by asking social media networks including Twitter and Facebook to remove around 100 posts critical of Modi's Covid-19 response.  

India’s coronavirus death toll has now surpassed 200,000 people after the country reported a further 3,293 deaths on Tuesday -- its highest daily death toll thus far.

A record 360,960 new cases were recorded by health authorities on Tuesday, making it the seventh consecutive day of more than 300,000 new cases being recorded.

The UK transport secretary said Wednesday that the country's National Health Service (NHS) app will be used as a certificate for international travel, noting that the earliest possible date to "unlock" international travel would be in mid-May.

Under current coronavirus restrictions, it is currently illegal to travel abroad from the UK for holidays.

The existing NHS app is being “re-deployed” to be able to “show you've had a vaccine or you've had testing,” Grant Shapps told UK broadcaster SKY.  

The UK government is expected to set out this week which countries people in the UK can travel to this summer.

Shapps said he will set out "towards the beginning of May" which countries fall into the various different categories of a "traffic light" system recently announced by the UK government.

Under the "cautious" plan, countries will be classified as red, amber or green -- depending on their pandemic situation.

Countries included in the green list will be ones "where you'll be able to go to without needing to quarantine on your return," Shapps said.

He added that travelers will still need to take a pre-departure Covid-19 test and another one on return.

The transport secretary added that he is working with "partners across the world to make sure that [the NHS] system can be internationally recognized, as that's the way forward," and that at an upcoming meeting of the G7 secretaries of state for transport, he would be discussing the subject with his counterparts, including transport secretaries from the US and Canada.

Sri Lanka’s Health Ministry said today it would increase Covid-19 related restrictions as the country reported a record 1,111 new infections.

This month's uptick is likely tied to the Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations on April 13 and 14, which saw people crowded streets to celebrate and shop, according to Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi.

Starting Wednesday, schools across Sri Lanka will shut and private functions will be banned. Public and private employers are being asked to limit the number of people required to report to work. Authorities have also shut the main highway between Colombo and the port town of Hambantota and placed more than 100 areas across the country in lockdown.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said this week that the only answer to cope with the current situation is vaccination, but the country is facing a vaccine shortage.

Currently it is rolling it out the AstraZeneca vaccine and is awaiting a shipment of the Sputnik vaccine.

At least 201 people in Pakistan died of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, a new single-day record, according to the country's Ministry of Health.

Since the pandemic began, 17,530 people have died as a result of the coronavirus.

The spike comes as neighboring India is battling its own spike in cases, with 300,000 new Covid-19 patients reported there every day for more than a week.

Pakistan recorded an additional 5,293 Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. Authorities say there are currently 88,207 active cases in the country.

More than 810,000 cases have been identified in Pakistan since the pandemic began, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.

Nearly 150 people a day coming to the Indian city of Surat are being turned away as they seek medical treatment, said Dr. Hiral Shah, the president of the Indian Medical Association in Gujarat.

Shah said most of the patients are coming from nearby South Gujarat, but Surat's hospitals are "overwhelmed with our own population and we are running low on oxygen so we are not able to admit those coming in from surrounding areas."

Surat has been experiencing a shortage in its oxygen supply since Sunday, with 30% less oxygen being supplied to the city than is required for its patients.

Private hospitals in the city have stopped admitting new patients, unless they are able to discharge those currently admitted in the hospital.

Gujarat has reported 524,725 cases of coronavirus including 6,656 deaths, according to numbers released by the Indian Ministry of Health on Wednesday.

India’s coronavirus death toll has surpassed 200,000, after the country reported that 3,293 people died due to Covid-19 on Tuesday -- the highest number of Covid-19 fatalities recorded in a single day, according to figures released by the country’s health ministry on Wednesday.

It is the first time India's reported number of coronavirus deaths in a day has crossed the 3,000-mark.

India also revealed Wednesday that authorities had identified a record 360,960 new cases of coronavirus Tuesday, according to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health. India has recorded more than 300,000 cases a day for seven consecutive days.

To date, India has reported 17,997,267 Covid-19 cases and 201,187 virus-related deaths.

India launched its vaccination drive on January 16. Authorities said 147,727,054 doses have been administered as of Tuesday evening local time, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Health. A total of 24,865,044 people have received their second dose -- about 1.9% of India's population of 1.3 billion.

Members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are holding political rallies to drum up support ahead of municipal elections despite a devastating second wave of coronavirus gripping the country.

Campaigning is underway in parts of southern Telangana state for municipal elections. Images tweeted by the BJP Telangana official account on Monday show crowds of people gathered at rallies in Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation, with many of them not wearing masks or adhering to social distancing guidelines.

India reported 352,991 new coronavirus cases -- breaking yet another record for the highest single-day figure globally. Cases dipped slightly Tuesday, with 323,144 new patients reported.

The party's Twitter account later took down some of the tweets and photos showing wider shots of large crowds gathered in the streets for the rallies.

Modi and the BJP have come under fire for holding several rallies in eastern West Bengal state with thousands in attendance between March and April ahead of state polls.

Experts fear the Covid-19 pandemic in India is spiraling out of control thanks to a "perfect storm" of poor vaccine coverage, mass gatherings and the prevalence of more contagious variants of the virus. India has had a total of 17,636,307 Covid-19 cases and 197,894 deaths, according to a CNN tally

On April 22, the Election Commission of India tightened restrictions for the remaining phases of the West Bengal state assembly elections, banning road shows and vehicle rallies as well as large public meetings with more than 500 people after finding political parties and candidates were flouting public health guidelines.

Municipal elections come under state authorities, however, and the Telangana State Election Commission has advised that parties and candidates adhere to state guidelines pertaining to Covid-19. Telangana has not enacted strict anti-epidemic measures, only a curfew at night.

Telangana reported 10,122 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 411,905, according to state health department figures.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it has bolstered its Covid-19 response in India by redeploying 2,600 health experts from other programs to counter the massive spike in cases throughout the country.

The WHO also said the problem of hospital overcrowding is being exacerbated by patients who may not need to be there. 

The WHO is appealing for people not to stockpile “essential supplies like oxygen cylinders and drugs.”

New Zealand's successful pandemic handling has won it international attention -- and has even seen Hollywood stars shift to its shores.

But according to Bloomberg's latest Covid resilience rankings, the island nation that's been held up as an example of how to handle Covid-19 is no longer the best place to ride out the pandemic.

For the first time since Bloomberg's rankings started last November, Singapore has topped the world -- knocking New Zealand off its perch with a score of 79.7 to New Zealand's 79.6.

Singapore, a country of 5.7 million, has reported more than 61,000 cases and 30 deaths, while New Zealand -- a country of about 5.1 million -- has reported just 2,601 cases and 26 deaths. Both countries have used strict border policies to almost entirely squash community transmission of Covid-19.

But there's something Singapore has over New Zealand: vaccinations. While Singapore has at least partially vaccinated more than a fifth of its population, New Zealand has vaccinated less than 3%.

The Bloomberg Resilience Score ranks countries on their fatality rate and cases per 100,000 over the past month, their total deaths per 1 million, their test positive rate and the level of vaccination. Australia, Israel and Taiwan rounded out the top five spots.

For now, New Zealand is only rolling out vaccines to border workers, staff at state-run quarantine facilities, and high-risk frontline workers or those living in high-risk places, although it plans to provide everyone in the country with a free vaccine.

And while the country's vaccination rate is lagging behind other places overseas -- the United States, for instance, has already at least partially vaccinated more than 41% of its population -- New Zealand isn't alone in the region for its low vaccination rate. For example, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Australia have all been relatively slow at vaccinating their populations.

Leaders in some countries have argued there is some value in not rushing vaccines out as it allows them time to observe side effects.

But experts say these countries still need to vaccinate their populations, as having huge numbers of unvaccinated people is a risk in a world where Covid mutates and changes so rapidly.