India: Minister: Maharashtra may extend lockdown until mid-May 21

• India’s western state of Maharashtra, home to the financial capital Mumbai, may extend its lockdown by a fortnight until mid-May 21 to try to halt a rise in coronavirus cases, the state’s health minister said on 28 Apr 21.
• The state will not go through with a plan to open vaccinations to everyone aged over 18 from 1 May 21 due to a shortage of doses, Rajesh Tope told reporters.
• Meanwhile, in the national capital, currently Ground Zero of the second wave, there appears to be a discrepancy between the number of people laid to rest and that put on paper as the official Covid-19 death toll.
• In the last 10 days, 3,094 Covid deaths were reported. An almost equal number, 3,909, died suspected to have had Covid.
• “This gap indicates that there are many more cases in the city than those being tested,” said a senior doctor. “We always knew this gap exists but now that the case load is surging and many of them are dying, this evidence is more stark.”
• Data from the capital’s 23 key crematoriums and cemeteries maintained by Delhi’s three civic bodies based on death certificates and hospital reports explain the unprecedented scale of the unfolding tragedy that goes beyond the daily Covid dashboard. The number of funerals at Muslim burial grounds as per Covid protocol is awaited.
• Indeed, the total number of dead in the city in these 10 days (Covid, suspected Covid and non-Covid) was 12,069. Contrast this with deaths in the city in pre-Covid year 2019 — on an average, as per official data, 12,107 died in one month.

External Link : https://indianexpress.com/article/india/counting-the-covid-dead-in-the-capital-on-paper-at-the-pyre-and-in-between-7293011/

External Link : https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-maharashtra-state-may-extend-lockdown-until-mid-may-minister-2021-04-28/