Asia Today: India overtakes Brazil as 2nd-worst hit country
NEW DELHI (AP) — India reported another record daily surge in coronavirus infections Monday to overtake Brazil as the second-worst hit country.
The 168,912 cases added in the last 24 hours pushed India's total to 13.5 million, while Brazil has 13.4 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
India also reported 904 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking its total to 170,179, which is the fourth highest toll, behind the United States, Brazil and Mexico.
India is experiencing its worst surge of the pandemic, with a seven-day rolling average of more than 130,000 cases per day. Hospitals across the country are becoming overwhelmed with patients, and experts worry the worst is yet to come.
The latest surge also coincides with the shortage of vaccines in some Indian states, including western Maharashtra state, home to financial capital Mumbai, which is the worst hit state and has recorded nearly half of the country’s new infections in the past two weeks.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
— The hard-hit Philippine capital and four nearby provinces were placed under a lighter coronavirus lockdown Monday to avoid further damage to an already battered economy despite a continuing surge in infections and deaths. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Metropolitan Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal, a region of more than 25 million people, would remain under lighter quarantine restrictions up to the end of April after a two-week hard lockdown. “Our emerging strategy is to increase our bed capacities instead of closing the economy,” said Roque, who spoke in a televised news briefing from a Manila hospital after contracting COVID-19 like many Cabinet members. The Philippines has long been a Southeast Asian coronavirus hotspot, with about 865,000 confirmed...
