India reports highest number of Covid-19 deaths since pandemic began

Dr. Fauci has recommended that India should go into lockdown for several weeks to arrest the current devastating surge in Covid cases. ’No one likes to lock down the country ... But if you do it just for a few weeks, you could have a significant impact on the dynamics of the outbreak,’ Fauci stressed. India recorded more than 400,000 new cases on Saturday.

A forum of scientific advisers set up by the government warned Indian officials in early March of a new and more contagious variant of the Covid taking hold in the country. Despite the warning by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genetics Consortium, the scientists allege the government did not seek to impose major restrictions to stop the spread. Researchers first detected the Indian variant in February.

The widow of a Texas congressman Rep. Ron Wright who died after contracting COVID-19 carried former President Trump’s endorsement into a special election Saturday. Trump waited until just days before the election to endorse Susan Wright. Wright is seen as a favorite in a crowded race to fill the seat of her late husband. Ten Democrats are on the ballot.

A fire in a COVID-19 hospital ward in western India killed 18 patients early Saturday. The cause of the fire at the Welfare Hospital in Bharuch, a town in Gujarat state, is being investigated. 31 other patients were rescued. This comes as the country grapples with the worst outbreak yet. India on Saturday set another daily global record with 401,993 new cases. Another 3,523 people died.

The US State Department issued the highest Level 4 ’do not travel’ advisory and asked its citizens to leave India immediately as the South Asian country is gripped by an apocalyptical surge in Covid cases. India has been breaking its own world record in the number of daily cases each day in the past one week. The country’s medical system is on the brink of collapse and its funeral services choked.

The White House announced Friday that 100M Americans are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, a milestone in the ongoing vaccination campaign. ’Today, 100M Americans are fully vaccinated, nearly double the 55M who were fully vaccinated at the end of March,’ THE White House COVID-19 response coordinator said. 55% adults now have at least one dose of the vaccine, and 40% are fully vaccinated.

Apo Islands in Philippines have been suffering from environmental pollutions for years, because of Philippines’ notorious plastic pollution to the world after China and Indonesia. As natural recycling is processing by mother nature itself, due to less tourists whereabouts, Covid-19 proves that it is remedy to endangered species. There are 385 different fish species at Apo Island region.

Joe Rogan walked back his claim that healthy young Americans don’t need to get vaccinated against Covid-19. ’I’m not an anti-vaxx person,’ Rogan said, clarifying that the comments made on his podcast last week didn’t stem from a belief that vaccines are dangerous. A day earlier, Dr. Fauci slammed Rogan’s claim, saying, ’if you want to only worry about yourself and not society, then that’s okay.’

The Covid-19 death toll in Brazil has crossed the 400,000-mark on Thursday as the country continues to struggle with its vaccination drive. The country recorded 3,001 Covid deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the toll to 401,186. Brazil is the second country in the world to have recorded 400,000 Covid deaths after the United States. The occupancy of ICU beds in the country remains at over 90%.

Harvey Hunter Jr, a 48-year-old man charged with threatening Iowa’s Governor Kim Reynolds by saying she ’should be hung for treason,’ defended himself citing free speech. He said he was voicing his opposition to the Covid restrictions that Reynolds had imposed on the state. Hunter is charged with first-degree harassment for the message he left on a governor’s office phone line on January 5.

A grim milestone was marked by Ontario when the death toll in the province due to the coronavirus passed the 8,000 mark. This has resulted in the health leaders of the province to step up their plans to get more and more Canadians vaccinated in the coming months. According to a projection by the government, everybody aged above 18 will manage to book a shot by the 24th of May.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the United States has been reporting an average of 2.7 million Covid-19 vaccinations per day over the past week. The CDC also reported that the rate of daily new coronavirus infections is on the decline in the majority of states. Daily vaccinations had peaked at an average of 3.4 million on April 13.

Partial lockdown is set to be extended in northeastern Syria for another week according to an announcement by the Kurdish-led authorities due to a surge in COVID-19 cases. Warnings regarding shortage of oxygen were given out by an international aid group in the neglected region of the country which has been ravaged by war. A lockdown was earlier imposed during this month for 10 days.

India has recorded 360,960 new Covid cases in the past 24-hours. This was also the deadliest day so far, with 3,293 fatalities. The surge in cases is being attributed to ’super-spreader’ events recently which included: mass rallies by politicians including PM Modi, religious holidays and pilgrimages on the Ganges river. Ill-preparedness has resulted in shortage with the health system in collapse.

In his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Joe Biden on Wednesday called upon lawmakers to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act – a sweeping pro-union legislation and raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. The PRO Act remains stalled in the Senate. The $15 minimum wage dropped from Covid relief fund after the Senate parliamentarian blocked it.

A hashtag calling for the resignation of the Indian PM Modi was briefly blocked on Facebook Wednesday, hiding more than 12,000 posts critical of the government as the Covid pandemic spirals out of control. Users in India noted on Twitter that the hashtag #ResignModi had been blocked from view on Facebook. ’We temporarily blocked this hashtag by mistake,’ Facebook said before restoring access.

Turkey is set to enter its first full lockdown of the pandemic Thursday, to curb a surge in infections and deaths. The new measures will be put in place until May 17 to fight a surging third wave of Covid infections. Turkey’s 40,444 new infections reported on Wednesday were the highest in Europe. ’We must quickly reduce the number of cases to less than 5,000 a day,’ the Turkish President said.

An EU report said Russian and Chinese mouthpieces actively campaigned to sow seeds of doubt on Covid-19 vaccines developed in the western nations. The report said from December to April, outlets from the two countries disseminated fake news on the internet in multiple languages raising serious doubts on vaccine safety. They also said Russian and Chinese vaccines were better than the western ones.

A growing number of universities are making it compulsory for its students and staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19 for the fall semester. So far, over 80 universities, including the top Ivy League schools, have said that all students must get vaccinated before they would be allowed to return to class. However, some colleges, like Virginia Tech, are leaving the decision to students.

During a practice session in Orlando on April 26, players of Toronto FC were interrupted when a giant alligator entered their session. A joke was made by the team about the reptile being their latest signing. They further joked that the gator had not been included in their squad to face Cruz Azul from Mexico. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the team has had to locate to Orlando for the MLS season.

Senator Ted Cruz opined about what he feels President Biden’s first speech to Congress will be like - ’boring, but radical.’ The GOP lawmaker predicted that Mr. Biden will talk about the $1.9 trillion COVID bill, and will also tout the $2 trillion infrastructure plan. Senator Cruz also said he expects Mr. Biden to ’propose an ’American Families Plan’ that is likely to cost over a trillion dollars’

President Joe Biden is set to table a proposal asking Congress to approve spending $45 billion to provide free meals to millions more children from low-income families. This is an attempt to expand the anti-poverty steps taken in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The president is also asking to provide more money for free meals in high-poverty areas throughout the school year.

The US will share its stockpile AstraZeneca vaccine doses with other nations who are struggling with shortages in their inoculation drive. President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 adviser, Andy Slavitt, tweeted that the US would share as many as 60 million doses of the vaccine ’as soon as they become available.’ Currently, several countries, especially in the EU and India, are running short of Covid jabs.

Senator Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) said ’Washington schemes’ and ’socialist dreams’ won’t save America from its pandemic crisis. Scott said Biden needs to leverage last year’s bipartisan stimulus and Covid-19 vaccines developed under former President Donald Trump to tackle the crisis. He said while Biden promised unity, he promoted a ’partisan wish list’ and pushed divisive liberal policies.