Top rice supplier India bans some exports

MUMBAI, India - The world's biggest rice exporter India has banned some overseas sales of the grain "with immediate effect", the government said, in a move that could drive international prices even higher.

Rice is a major world food staple and prices on international markets have soared to decade highs as the world grappled with the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the impact of the El Nino weather phenomenon on production levels.

India would ban exports of non-basmati white rice -- which accounts for around a quarter of its total -- the consumer affairs and food ministry said.

The move would "ensure adequate availability" and "allay the rise in prices in the domestic market", it said in a statement late Thursday.

India accounts for more than 40 percent of all global rice shipments, so the decision could "risk exacerbating food insecurity in countries highly dependent on rice imports", data analytics firm Gro Intelligence said in a note.

Countries expected to be hit by the ban include African nations, Turkey, Syria, and Pakistan -- all of them already struggling with high food-price inflation -- the firm added.

Global demand saw Indian exports of non-basmati white rice jump 35 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, the ministry said.

The increase came even after the government banned broken rice shipments and imposed a 20 percent export tax on white rice in September.

India exported 10.3 million tons of non-basmati white rice last year and Rabobank senior analyst Oscar Tjakra said alternative suppliers did not have spare capacity to fill the gap.

"Typically the major exporters are Thailand, Vietnam, and to some extent Pakistan and the US," he told AFP. "They won't have enough supply of rice to replace these."

Moscow's cancellation of the Black Sea grain deal that protected Ukrainian exports has already led to wheat prices creeping up, he pointed out.

"Obviously this will add into inflation around the world because rice can be used as a substitute for wheat."

Rice prices in India rose 14-15 percent in the year to March and the government "clearly viewed these as red lines from a domestic food security and inflation point of view", ratings agency Crisil's research director Pushan Sharma said in a note.

India had already curbed exports of wheat and sugar last year to rein in prices.

Agence France-Presse

India raids offices of Chinese smartphone maker Vivo

MUMBAI, India—Chinese smartphone maker Vivo said Tuesday it was "cooperating with authorities" in India after reports investigators raided dozens of its offices on suspicion of money laundering.

The searches make Vivo the latest Chinese tech company to face scrutiny by Indian investigative agencies, after similar raids against Xiaomi and Huawei earlier this year.

A Vivo spokesperson confirmed that the Enforcement Directorate -- India's financial crime-fighting agency -- had raided multiple locations and seized company property.

"Vivo is cooperating with the authorities to provide them with all required information," the spokesperson told AFP. "We are committed to be fully compliant with laws."

Vivo specializes in budget handsets and had carved out 15 percent of India's competitive smartphone market by last year, data from tech research firm Counterpoint showed.

Multi-year sponsorships of popular sporting events such as the Indian Premier League T20 cricket tournament have helped Vivo's brand become a household name in India since its market debut in 2012.

Vivo's parent company BBK Electronics also owns rival brand Oppo, which sells OnePlus and Realme smartphones and tablets.

Relations between India and China have been at a low ebb since a deadly Himalayan military stand-off between both nations in 2020. 

In the aftermath, India's home ministry banned hundreds of mobile applications of Chinese origin, including the hugely popular social media platform TikTok. 

The government justified the bans as a necessary safeguard against threats to India's sovereignty.

Anti-China sentiment has grown in India since the fatal 2020 troop clash, sparking calls for consumer boycotts of Chinese goods.

But China continues to be a key economic partner for India, with more than $125 billion in bilateral trade last year.

Vivo manufactures 50 million devices and employs 10,000 Indians at a factory near the capital New Delhi, the spokesperson told AFP.

India is home to the second-highest number of smartphone users after China.

Its smartphone market grew 27 percent year-on-year in 2021, according to Counterpoint, with annual sales exceeding 169 million units.

Agence France-Presse

India hikes interest rates by 50 basis points to fight inflation

MUMBAI - India's central bank on Wednesday hiked rates for the second time in two months, as Asia's third-largest economy reels from galloping inflation in the wake of the Ukraine war.

The Reserve Bank of India raised its key repo rate by 50 basis points to 4.90 percent, a month after kicking off an aggressive monetary tightening cycle with a surprise 0.4 percentage point rise.

Agence France-Presse

India hits daily COVID vaccination record, as free shots opened to all adults

India recorded its highest-ever daily vaccination count on Monday as it opened up free shots to all adults.

The progress with inoculations came on International Yoga Day, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailing the practice's "protective" properties against the coronavirus.

The country's vaccination drive had significantly slowed in recent months due to a shortage of jabs and hesitancy, even as it battled a vicious surge in cases in April and May that overwhelmed the healthcare system in many places.

Case numbers have since fallen sharply and the authorities have again relaxed many restrictions, sparking fears of another wave.

The government had expanded the vaccine roll-out to include all adults aged below 45 on May 1, but states and private hospitals had to procure and buy the shots themselves for the younger age group, leading to confusion and shortages.

But New Delhi later changed tack, announcing it would procure 75 percent of vaccine supplies and distribute them to states so they could inoculate people for free.

The health ministry reported that a record 7.8 million jabs were administered on Monday, in contrast with an average of three million shots a day in recent weeks.

"Today's record-breaking vaccination numbers are gladdening. The vaccine remains our strongest weapon to fight COVID-19... Well done India!" Modi tweeted.

The country has administered 280 million shots in total, but barely four percent of people are fully vaccinated. The government aims to inoculate all of India's almost 1.1 billion adults by the end of the year.

"The vaccination drive is expected to pick up speed now... the daily vaccination has picked up over the last week and is expected to strengthen further," community health expert Rajib Dasgupta told AFP.

"However, both existing inequities as well as hesitancy merit deeper attention to make this a success." 

- Yoga push -

The free roll-out came as Modi marked the annual Yoga Day with an early-morning address to the nation, saying the practice had again proved itself to be a source of "inner strength".

"When I speak to frontline warriors, they tell me that they have adopted yoga as a protective shield in their fight against coronavirus. Doctors have strengthened themselves with yoga and also used yoga to treat their patients," the Indian leader said.

Public parks were re-opened in Delhi on Monday, but the number of events for Yoga Day was cut back around the country for the second year running because of the pandemic.

Yoga Day -- proposed by Modi and adopted by the United Nations in 2014 -- is observed mostly in India, but also worldwide on the Northern Hemisphere's longest day.

Throughout the pandemic, India's government has touted yoga and herbal medicines -- sales of which have boomed -- to protect and give relief to people infected with the virus.

But evidence is scant and the claims have faced pushback from India's doctors, who wore black armbands last month to protest Baba Ramdev, a guru with ties to the Modi administration who has said yoga can cure Covid-19.

India is the world's second most infected nation with nearly 30 million coronavirus cases and more than 388,000 deaths, although experts say the actual toll could be much higher due to underreporting.

Authorities said late Monday that the Amarnath Yatra -- an annual Hindu pilgrimage to a cave shrine in Kashmir that draws some 300,000 participants -- would be cancelled for the second straight year due to the pandemic.

Agence France-Presse

Monster cyclone heads for COVID-stricken India

AHMEDABAD, India - A major cyclone packing ferocious winds and threatening a destructive storm surge bore down on India on Monday, disrupting the country's response to its devastating Covid-19 outbreak.

At least six people died over the weekend in torrential rains and winds as Cyclone Tauktae, according to press reports the biggest to hit western India in 30 years, swept over the Arabian Sea with Gujarat state in its sights.

The "Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm" was due to make landfall on Monday between 8-11 pm (1430-1730 GMT) with winds of 155-165 kilometers per hour (95-100 miles per hour) gusting up to 185 kph, the Indian Meteorological Department said.

It warned of storm surges of up to three meters high (10 feet) in some of Gujarat's coastal districts.

The colossal swirling system visible from space exacerbated India's dire problems dealing with a huge coronavirus surge that is killing at least 4,000 people every day and pushing hospitals to breaking point.

In waterlogged and windswept Mumbai, where authorities on Monday closed the airport for several hours and urged people to stay indoors, authorities on Sunday shifted 580 Covid patients "to safer locations" from three field hospitals.

In Gujarat, where on Sunday and overnight more than 100,000 people from 17 districts were evacuated, all Covid-19 patients in hospitals with five kilometers of the coast were also moved.

Authorities there were scrambling to ensure there would be no power cuts in the nearly 400 designated Covid hospitals and 41 oxygen plants in 12 coastal districts where the cyclone was expected to hit hardest.

"To ensure that Covid hospitals are not faced with power outages, 1,383 power back-ups have been installed," senior local official Pankaj Kumar said.

"Thirty-five 'green corridors' have also been made for supply of oxygen to Covid hospitals," he said.

Virus safety protocols such as wearing masks, social distancing and the use of sanitizers would be observed in the shelters for evacuees, officials added. 

The state also suspended vaccinations for two days. Mumbai did the same for one day.

Thousands of disaster response personnel had been deployed, while units from the coast guard, navy, army and air force had been placed on standby.

Maharashtra evacuated around 12,500 people from coastal areas.

Four people died on Saturday as rain and winds battered Karnataka state while two died in Goa as winds hit power supplies and uprooted trees.

S M Bandekar, dean of the Goa Medical College Hospital (GMCH), said that one Covid ward suffered minor flooding because rain came in open windows.

"But there was no need to shift the patients," he said, adding that the state's hospitals were not affected by the power cuts because they had back-up generators.

Two others were reported dead and 23 fishermen were feared missing in Kerala, local media said.

The vast nation of 1.3 billion people reported on Monday 4,100 deaths and 280,000 fresh Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total close to 25 million -- a doubling since April 1.

"This cyclone is a terrible double blow for millions of people in India whose families have been struck down by record Covid infections and deaths," said Udaya Regmi from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The organization said it was helping authorities to evacuate people most at risk in coastal areas, providing first aid, masks "and encouraging other critical COVID-19 prevention measures".

Last May, more than 110 people died after "super cyclone" Amphan ravaged eastern India and Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal.

The Arabian Sea previously experienced fewer severe cyclones than the Bay of Bengal but rising water temperatures because of global warming was changing that, Roxy Mathew Koll from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology told AFP.

"(The) Arabian Sea is one of the fastest-warming basins across the global oceans," told AFP.

Agence France-Presse

To fight COVID-19, Indian states turn to ivermectin against WHO advice

BENGALURU - At least two Indian states have said they plan to dose their populations with the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin to protect against severe COVID-19 infections as their hospitals are overrun with patients in critical condition.

The move by the coastal state of Goa and northern state of Uttarakhand come despite warnings from the World Health Organization and others against such measures.

"The current evidence on the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patients is inconclusive," WHO said in a statement in late March. "Until more data is available, WHO recommends that the drug only be used within clinical trials."

Merck, a manufacturer of the drug, has also said available data does not support using the drug as a COVID-19 treatment.

"We do not have enough data to support its use," said Anita Mathew, an infectious diseases expert in Mumbai.

The state of Goa, a major tourist haven, said earlier this week it plans to give ivermectin to all those older than 18, while the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand announced plans on Wednesday to distribute the tablets to any person over the age of two, except for pregnant and lactating women.

"An expert medical panel has recommended this," Uttarakhand's Chief Secretary Om Prakash told Reuters. "We are waiting for supplies to come in. Once they do we will distribute this drug."

Uttarakhand state in March and April played host to the Kumbh Mela, a weeks-long Hindu gathering that attracted millions of devotees from across the country. Images of the gathering showed scant evidence of any mask wearing or social distancing as throngs of people congregated for a holy dip in the river Ganges.

The state, ruled by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, has since early April seen its COVID-19 cases surge from under 300 a day to above 7,000 a day, and the death toll has also risen sharply.

Modi and other political leaders in India have faced sharp criticism for failing to stop big religious and political gatherings in many states, despite evidence from mid-February onward that India's case count was rising.

Despite India's overwhelming surge in cases, Modi has shied away from imposing a nationwide lockdown fearing the economic fallout and has left it to state governments, which experts say have acted too late.

Uttarakhand state currently has coronavirus-related social restrictions, including curbs on interstate travel.

Goa, which is also ruled by Modi's BJP, remains open to tourists and only imposed an extended 15-day lockdown this week, despite data showing more than one in three patients were testing positive for COVID-19 since mid-April. The state is reporting the highest positivity rates in the country.

Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said an expert panel based in Europe had found the drug ivermectin reduced the time to recovery and risk of death, but regulators such as WHO and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration say there is little evidence of this.

The state-run Indian Council of Medical Research recommends doctors could use the drug for mild COVID-19 patients, but warns this is based on "low certainty of evidence."

Rane did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

-reuters-

India sees record COVID-19 deaths, new cases in 24 hours

India saw record new jumps in Covid-19 cases and deaths on Thursday, dashing tentative hopes that a catastrophic recent surge that has stretched hospitals to the limit might be easing.

Health ministry numbers showed 3,980 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the national total to 230,168, and 412,262 new cases, taking India's caseload since the pandemic began over 21 million.

Many experts suspect that with low levels of testing and poor record-keeping for cause of death -- and crematoriums overwhelmed in many places -- the real numbers could be much higher.

The rise follows several days of falling case numbers that had raised government hopes that the virus surge may have been easing.

Having hit a high of 402,000 last Friday, the daily number of cases eased to as low as 357,000 before creeping up again on Tuesday.

Senior health ministry official Lav Aggarwal had told reporters on Monday that there was a "very early signal of movement in the positive direction".

The sharp rise in cases since late March has overwhelmed hospitals in many places, with fatal shortages of beds, drugs and oxygen.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has resisted imposing a new lockdown although several regions including the capital New Delhi, Bihar and Maharashtra have imposed local shutdowns.

Until now the worst-hit areas have been Delhi and Maharashtra but other states including West Bengal, Kerala and Karnataka are now reporting sharp rises.

Kerala's chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced on Twitter Thursday a week-long lockdown in the southern state of 35 million people, which has one of India's best health care systems.

West Bengal, which controversially just completed an eight-phase election, on Wednesday announced tighter curbs including a suspension of local trains. Weddings are still allowed, however, with a maximum of 50 people.

K. Vijay Raghavan, the Indian government's principal scientific advisor, said Wednesday that the country of 1.3 billion had to be ready for another wave of infections after the current one.

"Phase 3 is inevitable given the high levels of circulating virus. But it is not clear on what timescale this phase 3 will occur. We should prepare for new waves," Raghavan told a news conference.

With the government facing criticism as patients die outside hospitals, consignments of oxygen and equipment have been arriving from the United States, France, Britain, Russia and other countries in recent days.

But India will need yet more oxygen from other countries to fight the surge until numbers stabilise, another government official said Monday.

"We did not and do not have enough oxygen," the top government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "If we could get more oxygen more lives would be saved."

Overnight, 11 people died in a hospital near the southern city of Chennai after pressure dropped in oxygen lines, the Times of India reported, the latest in a string of similar incidents.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies called for "urgent" international action to prevent "a worsening human catastrophe" across South Asia.

It highlighted the case of Nepal, where it said "many hospitals are full and overflowing" with Covid-19 patients and the daily caseload is 57 times higher than one month ago.

The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said on Wednesday meanwhile that the UK strain of Covid-19 was declining but that the Indian variant known as B.1.617 was being increasingly detected.

It stopped short of saying the Indian variant was to blame for the current rise.

"The current surge in cases over the last one and a half months in some states show a co-relation with the rise in the B.1.617 lineage", local media quoted NCDC chief Sujeet Singh as saying.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the B.1.617 variant has now been reported in more than a dozen countries.

But it has not said whether the variant is more transmissible, deadlier or able to evade vaccines.

Agence France-Presse

India releases $6.7 billion to help COVID-19 vaccine makers

India released $6.7 billion in cheap financing for vaccine makers, hospitals and other health firms on Wednesday, to counter the devastating coronavirus surge gripping the country.

Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das also vowed to deploy "unconventional" measures if the crisis worsens.

He spoke as India announced a record 3,780 deaths in 24 hours as well as 382,000 new cases.

This week it became the second country after the United States to pass 20 million cases and hospitals across the country of 1.3 billion people have complained of chronic shortages of beds, oxygen, vaccines and key drugs.

"The devastating speed with which the virus affects different regions of the country has to be matched by swift and wide-ranging actions," Das said.

The new measures -- making it easier for banks to give cheap loans to hospitals, oxygen manufacturers and even patients -- aim to improve access to emergency health care, he said.

The central bank will also give some general business borrowers more time to repay loans to help underpin the economy, Das said.

"The immediate objective is to preserve human life and restore livelihoods through all means possible," he added.

India's underfunded health care system has struggled to cope with the latest Covid-19 onslaught, with patients dying in hospital parking lots due to a lack of beds and oxygen.

Experts have warned that case numbers will keep rising until the end of May and could reach 500,000 new infections a day.

While New Delhi and other major cities have imposed curfews and other restrictions, the government has resisted opposition calls for a nationwide lockdown.

Even the Supreme Court has called on the government to consider tougher measures.

The Indian Premier League -- the world's richest cricket tournament -- shut down this week because of the spread of the virus among players. Many foreign stars are now struggling to get flights out.

Two more players, Delhi Capitals spinner Amit Mishra and Sunrisers Hyderabad's Wriddhiman Saha, were recently infected.

The country has tried to claw back lost ground after a stringent, months-long lockdown caused the labor market to collapse and the economy to contract by nearly a quarter between April and June last year.

Asia's third-largest economy was in the throes of a prolonged slowdown even before the pandemic, and the hit to global activity from the virus and one of the world's strictest lockdowns combined to deal the country a severe blow.

Fearing a repeat of last year's economic devastation, authorities have so far imposed limited restrictions, trying to strike a balance between keeping the economy going and targeting outbreaks in the hardest-hit regions.

New Delhi is hoping the economy will get a further boost from a massive vaccination drive that kicked off in January, with 160 million shots administered so far.

Agence France-Presse

India's COVID-19 death toll passes 200,000

NEW DELHI— India's coronavirus death toll passed 200,000 on Wednesday with more than 3,000 fatalities reported in 24 hours for the first time, official data showed.

A total of 201,187 people have now died, 3,293 of them in the past day, according to health ministry data, although many experts suspect that the true toll is higher.

India has now reported 18 million infections, an increase of 360,000 in 24 hours, which is a new world record. This month alone the country has added almost six million new cases.

The explosion in cases, blamed in part on a new virus variant as well as mass political and religious events, has overwhelmed hospitals with dire shortages of beds, drugs and oxygen.

The crisis is particularly severe in New Delhi, with people dying outside packed hospitals where three people are often forced to share beds. Clinics have been running out of oxygen.

India has so far administered 150 million vaccine shots and from Saturday the program will be expanded to include all adults, meaning 600 million more people will be eligible.

However, many states are warning that they have insufficient vaccine stocks and experts are calling on the government to prioritize vulnerable groups and badly hit areas.

Agence France-Presse

Mass cremations begin, as India's capital faces deluge of COVID-19 deaths

NEW DELHI—Delhi resident Nitish Kumar was forced to keep his dead mother's body at home for nearly two days while he searched for space in the city's crematoriums - a sign of the deluge of death in India's capital where coronavirus cases are surging.

On Thursday Kumar cremated his mother, who died of COVID-19, in a makeshift, mass cremation facility in a parking lot adjoining a crematorium in Seemapuri in northeast Delhi.

"I ran pillar to post but every crematorium had some reason ... one said it had run out of wood," said Kumar, wearing a mask and squinting his eyes that were stinging from the smoke blowing from the burning pyres.

India recorded the world's highest daily tally of 314,835 coronavirus infections on Thursday, with the second wave of the pandemic crushing its weak health infrastructure. In Delhi alone, where hospitals are running out of medical oxygen supplies, the daily rise is over 26,000.

People losing loved ones in the Indian capital, where 306 people have died of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, are turning to makeshift facilities that are undertaking mass burials and cremations as crematoriums come under pressure.

Jitender Singh Shunty who runs a non-profit medical service, the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sewa Dal, said as of Thursday afternoon 60 bodies had been cremated at the makeshift facility in the parking lot and 15 others were still waiting.

"No one in Delhi would have ever witnessed such a scene. Children who were 5 years old, 15 years old, 25 years old are being cremated. Newlyweds are being cremated. It's difficult to watch," said a teary-eyed Shunty.

Shunty, dressed in protective gear and a bright yellow turban, said last year during the peak of the first wave the maximum number of bodies he helped cremate in a single day was 18, while the average was eight to 10 a day.

On Tuesday, 78 bodies were cremated in that one place alone, he said.

Kumar said when his mother, a government healthcare worker, tested positive 10 days ago, the authorities could not find a hospital bed for her.

"The government is not doing anything. Only you can save your family. You are on your own," he said.

(Writing by Aditi Shah, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

-reuters-

ByteDance says India's freeze on bank accounts is harassment - court filing

MUMBAI - China's ByteDance has told an Indian court that a government freeze on its bank accounts in a probe of possible tax evasion amounts to harassment and was done illegally, according to a filing seen by Reuters.

ByteDance in January reduced its Indian workforce after New Delhi maintained a ban on its popular video app TikTok, imposed last year after a border clash between India and China. Beijing has repeatedly criticized India over that ban and those of other Chinese apps.

An Indian tax intelligence unit in mid-March ordered HSBC and Citibank in Mumbai to freeze bank accounts of ByteDance India as it probed some of the unit's financial dealings. ByteDance has challenged the freeze on the four accounts in a Mumbai court.

None of ByteDance India's employees have been paid their March salaries due to the account freeze, said two people familiar with the matter. The company told the court it has a workforce of 1,335, including outsourced personnel.

In the 209-page court filing lodged on March 25, ByteDance told the High Court in Mumbai the authorities acted against the company without any material evidence and gave no prior notice, as required by Indian law, before such "drastic action".

Blocking accounts "during the process of investigation amounts (to) applying undue coercion," ByteDance argued. It is "intended, improperly, to harass the petitioner."

India's Directorate General of Goods & Services Tax Intelligence, and the finance ministry which oversees it, did not immediately respond to requests for comment over the weekend.

The details of the tax investigation have not previously been reported. The tax agency told ByteDance last year it had reasons to believe the company suppressed certain transactions and claimed excessive tax credits, the filing shows.

ByteDance declined to comment on its court filing but told Reuters on Tuesday it disagrees with the decision of the tax authority. HSBC declined to comment, while Citibank did not respond.

ADVERTISING, OTHER DEALS SCRUTINISED

The court declined to grant ByteDance immediate relief in a brief hearing on Wednesday. The next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

The investigation centres on potential evasion of taxes related to online advertising and other financial dealings between ByteDance India and its parent entity in Singapore, TikTok Pte Ltd. TikTok did not respond to an email seeking comment.

ByteDance told the court its India workforce includes 800 people working in its "trust and safety" team that supports activities like content moderation overseas.

The company has "robust business plans in India and is not contemplating winding up," it said, urging the court to lift the freeze on the accounts.

The tax agency started investigating the company in July. It inspected documents at the company's office and summoned and questioned at least three executives, the filing says. Authorities also asked ByteDance to submit documents, including invoices and agreements signed with some clients.

ByteDance representatives "appeared multiple times" before tax officers and provided documents, the filing says.

TikTok, one of India's most popular video apps before it was banned, has faced scrutiny around the world.

Under then-President Donald Trump, the United States alleged the app posed national security concerns. The new administration of Joe Biden has paused a government lawsuit that could have resulted in a de facto ban on TikTok's use there.

-reuters-

Superspreader virus fears for massive India religious gathering

NEW DELHI - A huge religious gathering in northern India could fuel a surge in COVID-19 cases, the government warned Sunday as it called for an increase in testing and other health protocols.

The annual Kumbh Mela festival usually attracts millions of devout Hindus over three months, but was shortened to 30 days as India -- the world's third-most infected nation with nearly 11.6 million coronavirus cases -- grapples with the pandemic.

Authorities had already warned about a recent uptick in infections nationally, with some states imposing restrictions on movement and activities.

Virus fears have not stopped large crowds of pilgrims -- mostly maskless and with no social distancing -- from attending the gathering, with more than three million pilgrims taking part one day earlier this month.

Up to 40 pilgrims and locals were testing positive every day at the festival in Haridwar in Uttarakhand state, the health ministry said.

"This positivity rate has the potential to rapidly turning to an upsurge in cases, given the expected large footfall during Kumbh," it added.

More than 12 Indian states have shown a jump in Covid-19 cases in the past few weeks, the ministry said, warning that some pilgrims could be from these badly affected regions.

Some 50,000 rapid antigen tests and 5,000 RT-PCR tests are being carried out every day at the festival. But the ministry said more RT-PCR tests needed to be done -- particularly in areas where high transmission appears likely.

Crowd sizes are expected to swell during three upcoming holy bathing days.

The government also called on Uttarakhand state authorities to ensure "strict adherence to Covid-appropriate behavior".

There were 43,846 fresh cases reported in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said Sunday, the highest single-day rise this year.

Infections fell to below 9,000 new cases a day in early February, from a peak of almost 100,000 in September.

Agence France-Presse

India to test travelers from Brazil, S. Africa, UK after detecting new virus strains

NEW DELHI — India will make COVID-19 molecular tests mandatory for people arriving directly or indirectly from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil in a bid to contain the spread of more infectious virus variants found in those countries.

India, which has reported the highest number of overall COVID-19 cases after the United States, detected the South African variant in four people last month and the Brazilian one in one person this month.

The government has said the South African and Brazilian strains can more easily infect a person's lungs than the UK mutation. India has so far reported 187 cases of infection with the UK variant.

The government late on Wednesday said airlines would be required from next week to segregate inbound travelers from those countries. India does not have direct flights with Brazil and South Africa, and most people travelling from these countries generally transit through Middle Eastern airports.

"All the travelers arriving from/transiting through flights originating in United Kingdom, Europe or the Middle East shall be mandatorily subjected to self-paid confirmatory molecular tests on arrival," India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement.

All flyers will also have to carry a recent COVID-negative report before boarding any flight to India, except in extraordinary circumstances like death in a family.

India has so far reported about 11 million coronavirus cases and more than 155,000 deaths. Cases have come down sharply since a mid-September peak of nearly 100,000 a day.

A government serological survey released this month, however, said nearly 300 million of India's 1.35 billion people may already have been infected by the virus.

The country has also administered 9.2 million vaccine doses since starting its campaign on Jan. 16.

-reuters-

Mystery India illness wanes as officials search for source

BANGALORE - The number of people sickened by a mystery ailment in a southern Indian town has fallen off sharply, officials said Wednesday, as medical experts race to pinpoint the source of heavy metals in the victims' blood.

Some 578 people from Eluru in Andhra Pradesh state have been treated by authorities since Saturday, when the illness first appeared. One man died after showing symptoms of seizures, nausea and chronic pain.

The appearance of the unexplained malady initially sparked fears in the town of 200,000 people, amid heightened health alerts over the coronavirus. India is the world's second-most infected nation with more than 9.7 million cases.

Some 471 people have been discharged from hospital so far.

Eluru Government Hospital superintendent A.V. Mohan said just two people were brought in with symptoms from late Tuesday until early Wednesday, compared to the earlier rush of cases.

The state government has sampled water and air in the affected areas.

But no abnormalities, such as lead or pesticides, were found in the samples, officials said.

Mohan said Tuesday that samples taken from 10 people stricken with the illness showed high levels of lead and nickel in their blood. 

But he added that the sample was too small to be sure that the lead and nickel had caused the illness.

Vegetables, fruits and soil were also being tested, while residents in affected areas were being closely monitored by health experts. There are no major chemical factories in the region.

District officials had earlier pinpointed a possible role of chemical additives in pesticides.

Agence France-Presse

Virus, what virus? India gets back to work

SINNAR, India - India is on course to top the world in coronavirus cases, but from Maharashtra's whirring factories to Kolkata's thronging markets, people are back at work -- and eager to forget the pandemic for festival season.

After a strict lockdown in March that left millions on the brink of starvation, the government and people of the world's second-most populous country decided life must go on.

Sonali Dange, for instance, has two young daughters and an elderly mother-in-law to look after. She was hospitalized this year in excruciating pain after catching the coronavirus.

But after the lockdown exhausted the family's savings, the 29-year-old had to return to work at a factory where she earns 25,000 rupees ($340) a month.

"Now that I have recovered, I am no longer so scared of the disease," she told AFP amid the din of machinery at the Nobel Hygiene plant east of Mumbai.

WORST SINCE 1947

The pandemic's confirmed fatality rate has been heaviest in richer nations with older populations -- the US death toll is double that of India despite having only a quarter of the population.

Poor countries have suffered far worse economic pain, with the World Bank predicting 150 million people could fall into extreme poverty worldwide.

Many children in the developing world are now working to help their parents make ends meet, activists say, while thousands of young girls have been forced into marriage.

In Varanasi in northern India, 12-year-old Sanchit no longer attends school and instead collects cloth discarded from bodies before cremation on the city's ghats.

"On a good day, I earn around 50 rupees (70 US cents)," the boy told AFP.

The IMF projects India's GDP will contract by 10.3 percent this year, the biggest slump of any major emerging nation and its worst since independence in 1947.

LOCKDOWN CATASTROPHE

When India went into lockdown, it was a human catastrophe, leaving millions in the informal economy jobless, penniless and destitute almost overnight. 

No one wants to go back to that, said Gargi Mukherjee, 42, as she shopped in the New Market area of Kolkata, thronging with festival-season customers, many without face masks.

"For survival, people have to come out and do their jobs. If you don't earn, you cannot feed your family," she told AFP.

Experts caution that the October-November season -- when Hindus celebrate major festivals such as Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali -- may trigger a sharp increase in infections, as consumers crowd markets to snap up big-ticket items on discount. 

"Of course corona is to be feared. But what can I do? I can't miss the moments of Durga Puja," said housewife Tiyas Bhattacharya Das, 25.

"Durga Puja comes once in the year, so I cannot miss the enjoyment of the shopping."

HUNGER OR VIRUS

Sunil Kumar Sinha, a principal economist at the Mumbai-based India Ratings and Research agency, said Indians faced a stark choice.

"People have to choose whether to die of hunger or risk getting a virus that may or may not kill you," he told AFP.

Indeed India's relatively low mortality rate -- about 1.5 percent of its more than seven million cases -- has surprised many who warned coronavirus would lay waste to its crowded cities, beset by poor sanitation and crumbling public hospitals.

Even accounting for some likely undercounting, it is evident that the nightmare scenario of dead bodies piled in the streets as seen during the 1918 flu pandemic has mercifully not materialized.

'FOOT OFF THE BRAKE'

The unexpected reprieve has given Prime Minister Narendra Modi leeway to resist a fresh lockdown, with the human toll -- and political cost -- of another shutdown higher than seeing case numbers soar.

But Bhramar Mukherjee, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan, warned the government should not simply let the virus run its course.

"In order to open up, you need to intensify public health measures... If you completely take your foot off the brakes, the virus will take off too," Mukherjee told AFP.

Last month, the Indian Medical Association slammed the Modi government for its "indifference" to the sacrifices of front-line staff in one of the world's worst-funded health care systems.

"It appears that they are dispensable," it said.

Back in Kolkata, bookseller Prem Prakash, 67, was philosophical.

"You have to leave some things to fate," he told AFP.

"Fearing death too much is not a solution. When that comes, you should accept it gracefully."

Agence France-Presse

India's coronavirus cases pass 5 million

NEW DELHI - India's total coronavirus cases passed 5 million on Wednesday, health ministry data showed, as the pandemic extends its grip on the vast country at an ever-faster rate.

With its latest 1 million cases recorded in just 11 days, a world record, India now has 5.02 million infections. Only the United States has more, with 6.59 million.

India has for some time been recording the world's biggest daily jumps in cases, and on Wednesday, the rise was just over 90,000 with a record 1,290 deaths.

While India took 167 days to reach 1 million cases, the next million came in just 21 days, faster than the US and Brazil, according to the Times of India. 

Just 29 days later, India became only the third country after the US and Brazil to post 4 million infections. India passed Brazil earlier this month.

Even so, and with India now testing around a million people daily, many experts say that this is not enough and that the true number of infections may be far higher.

This has been borne out in several studies in recent weeks measuring antibodies against the virus among the cramped populations of megacities New Delhi and Mumbai.

The India Council for Medical Research, the country's lead pandemic agency, said last week that its survey had suggested that already in May, 6.5 million people were infected.

The same goes for deaths — 82,066 as of Wednesday, less than half the US toll of 195,000 — with many deaths not properly recorded by authorities even in normal times.

'WRONG SIGNAL'

India has one of the world's most poorly funded health care systems and the nation of 1.3 billion people is home to some of the most densely populated cities and towns.

The sharp rise in cases is despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government imposing in late March one of the world's strictest lockdowns, leaving tens of millions of people in the informal labor market jobless almost overnight.

The lockdown saw complete travel bans, shutting down of businesses and factories, and the flight of millions of poor migrant workers from big cities to their villages that experts say caused the virus to spread from urban centers to small towns.

India's GDP slumped nearly 24 percent in the first quarter, one of the steepest drops among major economies.

The lockdown has been steadily eased even as infections soar, with schools set to open for some classes on Monday, along with tourist hotspot the Taj Mahal.

"Initially there was a fair amount of rigor in the lockdown but subsequently there was some relaxation before it was completely lifted," K. Srinath Reddy, head of health charity at the Public Health Foundation of India, told AFP.

"It sent a wrong signal to the people that possibly we have got things reasonably under control and now the economy takes precedence. The virus is now infecting more people and penetrating deeper into smaller towns."

Agence France-Presse

YouTube tests TikTok rival in India

SAN FRANCISCO - YouTube on Monday began testing a TikTok rival in India, saying it would refine its short video format and roll it out in more countries in coming months.

YouTube Shorts made its debut as TikTok pursues a partnership with Oracle that it hopes will spare it from being shut-down in the US by President Donald Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday confirmed a bid from Oracle concerning TikTok's American operations after the video-sharing app's parent ByteDance rejected a proposal from Microsoft.

But it remained unclear whether the venture would pass muster with Washington regulators.

"Shorts is a new short-form video experience for creators and artists who want to shoot short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones," YouTube vice president of product management Chris Jaffe said in a blog.

"Over the next few days in India, we're launching an early beta of Shorts with a handful of new creation tools to test this out."

YouTube Shorts videos are limited to 15 seconds, according to the Google-owned platform used by some 2 billion people worldwide.

Jaffe noted that Shorts will be modified based on user feedback before being made more broadly available.

TikTok's brand of brief, quirky videos made on users' cellphones has grown hugely popular.

But Trump's claims that TikTok could be used by China to track US federal employees, build dossiers for blackmail and conduct corporate espionage has sparked a diplomatic storm between Washington and Beijing.

TikTok has rejected the charges and sued over the crackdown, contending that the US order was a misuse of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act because the platform is not "an unusual and extraordinary threat."

Trump effectively ordered the sale of the Chinese company's US operations by September 20, after which the app would shut down.

Agence France-Presse

Spain, India crash through coronavirus milestones

Spain passed the landmark figure of 500,000 coronavirus infections on Monday as India reopened some metro lines despite becoming the world's second most affected country.

Spain had largely gained control over its outbreak by imposing one of the world's toughest lockdowns, but infections have surged since the restrictions were fully removed at the end of June.

The country became the first in western Europe to hit the 500,000 mark -- albeit with a far lower death rate and many more asymptomatic cases than were recorded during its previous peak in late March and early April.

"The situation is much more favourable but we remain in an upwards phase," said health official Fernando Simon.

But the overall caseloads in European countries are dwarfed by India's 4.2 million confirmed infections.

Nevertheless, economic necessity pushed the South Asian nation to risk reopening transport lines on Monday -- metros began running again in the capital New Delhi after a five-month shutdown and 12 other cities also restarted subway services.

"For our lives to move on, we have to get out of our homes... so this is a good move by the government," on commuter Deepak Kumar on the Delhi subway told AFP.

Passengers are obliged to wear masks, keep their distance and undergo temperature checks.

- 'Like guinea pigs' -

India leapfrogged Brazil to become the world's second-hardest hit nation after the United States, with the virus having caused almost 890,000 deaths and more than 27 million infections worldwide.

As governments around the world have moved away from the idea of blanket lockdowns, countries in all continents have been experimenting with targeted measures to deal with infection spikes.

England fiddled with its overseas quarantine rules again on Monday, imposing restrictions on travellers from seven Greek islands popular with holidaymakers.

Morocco imposed a lockdown on Casablanca and shut schools on the day they were supposed to reopen after a surge in cases in the city.

Officials said the virus risked overwhelming the country if it was not controlled, but some parents were left fuming.

"They were on cloud nine over returning to school tomorrow," wrote one father on Twitter. "How do you explain this to a six-year-old and an eight-year-old?" 

In Spain, parental anger flowed in the other direction, with fears rising that schools were opening too soon with millions of pupils returning on Monday.

"Going back to school is being treated like an experiment, we're like guinea pigs," said Aroa Miranda, a 37-year-old mother-of-two.

France put seven more regions on a red list on Sunday after regularly recording daily infection rates of between 7,000 and 9,000 -- although the figure fell dramatically on Monday.

Israel announced a "nightly closure" of 40 cities and towns with the highest infection rates with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepting the measures were not ideal but saying there was "no way to avoid them".

- Olympic hope -

The coronavirus fallout continues to ricochet around the sporting world, with French footballer Kylian Mbappe the latest in a long line of footballers to test positive.

Many tennis players have also been infected, galvanising organisers of the French Open later this month to impose strict guidelines.

All players will be housed in two designated hotels "without exception" to reduce the risk, said tournament director Guy Forget, who also said far fewer spectators would be allowed to watch than initially planned.

Both tennis and football have seen their calendars ripped to shreds by the virus, but the biggest single casualty has been the Tokyo Olympics, which were due to take place this summer.

International Olympic Committee vice president John Coates offered a note of hope on Monday, saying the rescheduled Games would go ahead next year regardless of the pandemic.

"These will be the Games that conquered Covid, the light at the end of the tunnel," Coates told AFP in an exclusive interview.

Agence France-Presse 

India coronavirus deaths hit 50,000: health ministry

NEW DLEHI - India's death toll from the coronavirus hit 50,000 on Monday, with more than 900 new fatalities reported in 24 hours, health ministry data showed.

The country last week overtook Britain with the world's fourth-highest number of deaths, behind the United States, Brazil and Mexico, and has recorded 2.6 million infections.

India's death toll from the pandemic now stands at 50,921, an increase of 941 from the previous day, according to the health ministry's website.

The world's second-most populated country, home to some of the world's biggest cities and largest slums, is already the third-most infected nation behind the US and Brazil.

Many experts however say the real numbers may be far higher due to low levels of testing and because deaths are often not properly recorded in India's chronically under-funded health system.

Despite the rising death toll, the health ministry tweeted on Sunday that India's virus mortality rate was "one of the lowest globally" at below two percent.

"Successful implementation of testing aggressively, tracking comprehensively and treating efficiently through a plethora of measures have contributed to the existing high level of recoveries," the ministry said in a statement.

Experts say India needs to ramp up testing further to get the virus under control as it spreads to rural and regional areas where healthcare systems are particularly fragile or not easily accessible.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said trials and tests on three potential vaccine candidates were being carried out in India and that his government was preparing to produce huge numbers of doses if any are found to be viable.

"Once we get a green signal from our scientists, we will launch massive production of the vaccine. We have made all the preparations," Modi said in an Independence Day speech on Saturday.

"We have drawn an outline to ramp up the production of the vaccines and to make it available to each and every person in the shortest possible time."

LOCKDOWN MISERY

Modi's government imposed in March one of the world's strictest lockdowns.

It dealt a heavy blow to Asia's third-biggest economy and caused misery for the country's poor, with tens of millions of migrant workers left jobless almost overnight.

Vast numbers trudged back penniless to their home villages from cities including New Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, many of them on foot. Some died on the way.

The lockdown has since been steadily eased but many sectors complain that they are severely short of workers. 

State and local governments across the country have meanwhile reimposed lockdown measures as the virus has spread to smaller cities and rural areas, where around 70 percent of Indians live.

In many rural regions however, anecdotal evidence suggests that measures to stop the spread such as masks and distancing are widely ignored.

In addition, a lack of public awareness has contributed to those with the virus being ostracized, making people more reluctant to get tested.

Agence France-Presse

Dev Patel celebrates India from his Los Angeles front yard

LONDON (AP) — Quarantine brought opportunities to Dev Patel’s front yard.

From a safe distance, the British actor was able to enjoy both his birthday and his relationship with India without leaving his L.A. home.

The first was courtesy of his girlfriend, Australian actress Tilda Cobham-Hervey, who arranged for Patel’s friends to drive past with paper planes and letters while he sat in front of the house.

Second was the offer to celebrate India’s culture and civilizations by narrating a National Geographic special, “India From Above,” which airs Sept. 30.

As he quarantined, a portable recording booth was sent and parked in his driveway. “It was like a trailer hitched to a car, that had been completely sanitized,” Patel explained.

Apart from being reminded of the pandemic by the sound of a passing ambulance, it worked well for the voice-over.

“It was incredible to be able to make some art in a way, to voice this beautiful thing, linked up to India,” said Patel.

“India From Above” is a two-part documentary which uses drone footage to show aerial views of towering temples, religious gatherings, EDM festivals and solar technology.

Patel frequently films in India, but high above the crowd is not a perspective he’s used to.

“As soon as I step off that plane and out of the airport, you’re sucked into this massive humanity, the crowds and the people and your eye level just kind of being swept along with this tide of people. And that will sweep you somewhere really inspiring and quite magical.”

“But to zoom further and further out and higher and higher. That is pretty special,” he added

Patel, who earned an Emmy nomination for portraying a heartbroken dating app developer in “Modern Love,” admits to being tempted to go “full Attenborough” after growing up listening to Sir David narrate natural history shows.

“For me, it was just telling the story of the ingenuity of the people, the everyman. How people find a way in India, no matter how hard the condition is,” he said.

As a result, he now plans to visit Loktak Lake, that features in the program, where people live in houses on small islands of vegetation.

“It feels like something out of James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ movie. There’s a stillness and a serenity that is just breathtaking.”

Patel describes his own relationship with India as “ever changing.”

“I feel the sense of belonging when I go there. And I also feel like a total alien at times.”

From “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Lion” and “Hotel Mumbai,” the Oscar-nominated actor is often in India on location and was preparing another film when the pandemic struck.

It’s a passion project called “Monkey Man,” a thriller set in Mumbai. Patel is set to star and make his directorial debut.

It meant he was on one of the last planes leaving India before lockdown and says the locals went “above and beyond” to help him.

“Mumbai during that time, it was kind of dystopian. There’s no cars or rickshaws on the road. It was empty. The hotel that we’re staying at, those are eight of us. So it felt like ‘The Shining,’ being in this empty, humongous hotel with all the lights switched off.”

Since his return to the U.S., he’s spent some rare time at home prepping for future projects.

“Even though we’re hibernating, and we can’t physically live in the world between action and cut right now, it doesn’t mean that we can’t be exploring ideas.”

Associated Press