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Countries worldwide wrestling with new coronavirus surges are trying to ensure they aren’t hit by an India-style disaster. They face many of the same risks, including large populations that have shirked restrictions and fragile health systems shaken under the strain.
In a province along the Nile in southern Egypt, hospitals have been flooded with COVID-19 patients, a main hot spot in a third spike swelling across the country. Doctors in Sohag province warn the health system there could collapse, even as the government rushes in new supplies.
“My estimate is that there is no family in Sohag that does not have a corona case,” said Dr. Mahmoud Fahmy Mansour, head of the province’s doctors’ union. “We lost five physicians in one week.”
India s disaster hangs over countries facing COVID-19 surges
SAMY MAGDY, Associated Press
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1of20FILE - In this April 14, 2021, file photo, medical workers tend to coronavirus patients in the COVID-19 intensive care unit at Kenyatta National Hospital, in Nairobi, Kenya. Amid concerns over India, Kenya, which is coming down from a recent peak in cases, halted flights with the country for two weeks, while Nigeria suspended flights with India, Brazil and Turkey, fearing new virus strains could come in as it tries to bring down cases, particularly in Lagos, home to some 20 million people.Brian Inganga/APShow MoreShow Less
2of20Ashraf Sayed a resident of the town of Monshah, where a surge in coronavirus pandemic cases is taking place, looks at a market on the top of a residential building, in Sohag, Egypt on May 2, 2021. In Sohag province, health workers have grown desperate. One doctor who chairs a major hospital there said the real number of infec
India s COVID crisis hangs over countries facing virus surges
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Source: Associated Press
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SOHAG, Egypt (AP) Countries worldwide wrestling with new coronavirus surges are trying to ensure they aren’t hit by an India-style disaster. They face many of the same risks, including large populations that have shirked restrictions and fragile health systems shaken under the strain.
In a province along the Nile in southern Egypt, hospitals have been flooded with COVID-19 patients, a main hot spot in a third spike swelling across the country. Doctors in Sohag province warn the health system there could collapse, even as the government rushes in new supplies.
Egypt isn’t alone in seeing mounting new infections. Worldwide, more cases have been reported in the past two weeks than in the entire first six months of the pandemic, World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom said.
India and Brazil accounted for a large part of that, “but there are many other countries all over the world that face a very fragile situation,” he said. “What is happening in India and Brazil could happen elsewhere unless we all take these public health precautions.”
India has been hit by a catastrophic surge of COVID-19 infections after its prime minister boasted of vanquishing the pandemic and following multiple massive crowding events. New cases and deaths skyrocketed nearly 30-fold during March and April. The health system has been overwhelmed, leaving patients desperate for oxygen and other supplies.