#COVID cases surge in India as deaths hit highest point in months

Coronavirus cases in India are surging with daily deaths from the disease reaching their highest point in more than five months.

On Saturday the nation’s Health Ministry reported 145,384 new cases with 794 new deaths, according to Reuters. The surge has led to an overflow of demand on hospitals and crematoriums in many parts of the country.

The new pressures have forced a number of Indian states to reintroduce coronavirus restrictions. Large metropolises like Mumbai and New Delhi have reinstituted nightly curfew for the rest of April. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has, however, refused another full lockdown owing to its punishing economic costs.

Modi addressed thousands of attendees at a rowdy election rally in West Bengal Saturday even as his own government blamed the resurgence on overcrowding and reluctance to wear masks.

“Mass gatherings for elections and religious events have accelerated Covid, for which all of us are responsible to some extent,” Sonia Gandhi, President of Indian National Congress, said in a statement to the wire service.

Though India has already administered more than 97 million doses of the vaccines, it still has a long way to go before it reaches anywhere close to a majority of its 1.3 billion people.

States across the country have reported vaccine shortages, which played a role this week in India’s decision to discontinue vaccine shipments abroad to developing nations.