India’s deadly second wave is continuing to worsen, with daily new cases consistently exceeding 300,000 and deaths now having surpassed 3,000 a day. Hospitals are running out of intensive care beds and many are critically short of oxygen for treating patients. Alarmingly, a lack of high-quality real-time data means that we don’t actually have a clear picture of just how bad the situation currently is, writes Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton. The proportion of people in India returning a positive result when tested is 18% – nearly double the World Health Organization’s target threshold of 10%. This suggests a large number of positive cases are going unrecorded, meaning the outbreak is actually larger than the numbers suggest.
INDIA’S deadly second wave is continuing to worsen, with daily new cases consistently exceeding 300,000 and deaths now having surpassed 3,000 a day. Hospitals are running out of intensive care beds and many are critically short of oxygen for treating patients. Alarmingly, a lack of high-quality real-time data means that we don’t actually have a clear picture of just how bad the situation currently is, writes Michael Head, senior research fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton. The proportion of people in India returning a positive result when tested is 18 per cent – nearly double the World Health Organisation’s target threshold of 10%.
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Ghana became the first country globally to receive a vaccine shipment from the COVAX facility – a global initiative that’s trying to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines – when 600,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine doses were delivered in February 2021. The country also received a total of about 360,000 doses from India and telecom giant MTN as donations. Ghana’s initial plan was to vaccinate 20 million residents, about two-thirds of the population, by the end of October 2021. But, like many other countries in the world, Ghana’s strategy has faced challenges. Godfred Boafo spoke to public health researcher Nana Kofi Quakyi to unpack some of these.
India s crisis deepens, but vaccine sharing is yet to materialise
COVID 19 death in Indian, Health workers wearing personal protective equipment relatives carrying the mortal remains of a COVID-19 victim at the crematorium. Shutterstock
Friday, April 30, 2021 7:48 AM UTC
India’s deadly second wave is continuing to worsen, with daily new cases consistently exceeding 300,000 and deaths now having surpassed 3,000 a day. Hospitals are running out of intensive care beds and many are critically short of oxygen for treating patients.
Alarmingly, a lack of high-quality real-time data means that we don’t actually have a clear picture of just how bad the situation currently is, writes Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton. The proportion of people in India returning a positive result when tested is 18% – nearly double the World Health Organization’s target threshold of 10%. This suggests a large number of positive cases are going u
India’s deadly second wave is continuing to worsen, with daily new cases consistently exceeding 300,000 and deaths now having surpassed 3,000 a day. Hospitals are running out of intensive care beds and many are critically short of oxygen for treating patients.
Alarmingly, a lack of high-quality real-time data means that we don’t actually have a clear picture of just how bad the situation currently is, writes Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton. The proportion of people in India returning a positive result when tested is 18% – nearly double the World Health Organization’s target threshold of 10%. This suggests a large number of positive cases are going unrecorded, meaning the outbreak is actually larger than the numbers suggest.