India reported 368,147 new COVID-19 cases on Monday (May 3), the 12th consecutive day the South Asian nation has recorded at least 300,000 cases of the disease.
While India is home to the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India, only 2% of the country’s 1.3 billion people have been vaccinated, according to local reports.
“I don’t think even God could have forecast it was going to get this bad,” Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, told Britain’s newspaper The Sunday Times.
After scathing criticism about his comments during the interview with the newspaper, the 40-year-old billionaire said he was cutting the vaccine’s price and said the move would enable countries to obtain “more vaccinations and save countless lives.”
In the United States, President Joe Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” TV show, “we are rushing aid to India.” However, the U.S. is also taking new measures to prevent the spread of the virus. The White House said Friday that starting Tuesday, the U.S. will stop incoming flights from India.
The U.S. has dispatched two Air Force transport planes carrying oxygen cylinders, N95 masks and rapid diagnostic tests, the first of several planned shipments. Taiwan says it has sent much-needed oxygen supplies.
Australia is also banning flights from India. Australians who do enter the country after traveling to India could face a fine and incarceration. (VOA) -jlo
