India Covid Testing, Vaccines Slow as Infections And Deaths Rise
India is testing and vaccinating its citizens at a lower rate compared with recent months even as infections and deaths surge.
(Bloomberg) -- India is testing and vaccinating its citizens at a lower rate compared with recent months even as infections and deaths surge, a portent for the fight against the coronavirus in the world’s second-most populous nation.
Cases have risen 3.6 times in the last one month and deaths 6.3 times, while testing has increased only 1.5 times and daily vaccine doses fallen 38%, Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, wrote on Twitter.
The numbers show Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is struggling to contain the virus in India, which is the world’s epicenter of the pandemic. Experts agree that the country is already undercounting its sick and dying. A team at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore used a mathematical model to predict about 404,000 deaths will occur by June 11 if current trends continue.
The data show that “we are loosing momentum in fighting the virus,” said Rijo M. John, a Kerala-based economist and public health policy analyst who consults for the World Health Organization. “The virus is getting ahead of us and you are not able to catch up cases with sufficient number of tests. This is not a good situation for the country.”
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