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

Millions ordered into lockdown in India over virus fears

NEW DELHI - Hundreds of millions of Indians were ordered into lockdowns Sunday in the world's second-most populous nation, which stepped up measures to halt the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus.

Crowds gathered on balconies across the country in the afternoon to clap, ring bells and blow horns in a heart-warming tribute to the health care and emergency workers on the frontlines battling the COVID-19 illness.

The raft of state shutdowns in the nation of 1.3 billion people came during a 14-hour voluntary curfew that Prime Minister Narendra Modi said would test India's ability to fight the pandemic.

"This is the start of a long fight," Modi tweeted as the curfew came to an end.

"The people of this country have announced it today that we can take on and defeat as big a challenge as possible if we decide."

Normally bustling streets in the capital New Delhi and financial hub of Mumbai were mostly deserted as many people stayed indoors.

'STAY AT HOME' 

With the end of the voluntary curfew the government appealed to states late Sunday to impose mandatory lockdowns on virus-affected districts.

A growing number of states and territories, including the capital New Delhi, heeded the call and banned all activity except for essential services.

Delhi, with a population of almost 20 million, will seal its land borders from early Monday, and close shops and private sector offices until March 31.

Other states imposed partial or full lockdowns, with many closing borders, restricting movement and halting most public transport.

Some, like West Bengal with a population of more than 90 million, locked down major cities but not rural areas.

Indian Railways cancelled all services except suburban and goods trains until March 31.

Incoming international flights were already barred for a week, while schools, entertainment facilities and monuments such as the iconic Taj Mahal have been shut.

The curfew -- seen as a rehearsal for longer lockdowns -- came as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India surged past 360, with seven deaths.

Experts say a lack of testing may be hiding the true scale of the health crisis.

Testing for the virus was expanded to private laboratories and will now include asymptomatic people who had contact with confirmed cases, officials said.

'WE ARE AT WAR' 

Modi urged Indians to thank medical workers and other emergency personnel by clapping or banging pots and pans for five minutes at 5:00 pm -- and many in the cities responded with enthusiasm.

Neighbourhoods silent during the curfew burst into life as the sounds of clapping, cookware being hit and the bellow of conch shells -- an auspicious Hindu ritual -- filled the air from people's balconies.

"The enemy is there, invisible and elusive... We are trying to defeat it. We are at war, a public health war certainly," schoolteacher Sumita Dutta told AFP in Kolkata as she clapped her hands in front of her home.

South Asia is the world's most densely populated region, while India has an overburdened public health system that suffers from a lack of doctors and hospitals.

Experts warn that the country would not escape the highly infectious disease.

"We are in for a very long fight," warned virologist Shahid Jameel of biomedical research charity Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance.

In Mumbai's Dharavi, one of the world's biggest slums, residents said there was growing fears about the virus.

"We live by adjusting with each other in small confined spaces. But now we are not allowed to step out at all and police officials are enforcing it strictly. So it's a challenging situation," Raju Shaikh told AFP.

Agence France-Presse