INDIA’S COVID CRISIS WORSENS; AID POURS IN

India had a new record in daily coronavirus infections with more than 379,000 cases recorded in the past 24 hours, figures from India's Health Ministry showed on Thursday, April 29, 2021, Anne-Sophie Galli reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa). In addition, 3,645 people died as a result of the disease, the ministry said.

From May, all adults in India are to be able to get vaccinated. When people were able to register online from Wednesday, the rush was so great that the registration website's servers were overloaded at times, Indian media and many Twitter users reported. Initially, vaccinations are to be available only after online registration.

But vaccines in India are in short supply given a population of more than 1.3 billion - even though India produces vaccines en masse and is known as the "pharmacy of the world."

So far, less than 10 percent of people have received at least one vaccine dose. India's ambassador to Russia said that India would also start using the Russian vaccine Sputnik V from Saturday.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 38 percent of the coronavirus cases reported worldwide last week were from India.

India has now received promises of aid supplies such as oxygen manufacturing equipment and oxygen cylinders from more than 40 countries, the health ministry said on Thursday.

Germany's air force is preparing to fly medical and oxygen supplies to India, the Defense Ministry in Berlin said on Thursday.

Two A400M cargo aircraft will transport an oxygen production plant in the coming week, and there are also plans for 16 paramedics to set up the plant and provide instructions about its use.

Some 120 ventilators are to be flown to India on the first flight on Saturday, as announced earlier by the Health Ministry in Berlin.

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