Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
India Passes 25 Million Cases Of Covid As Surge Hits Rural Areas
Bloomberg: ‘Entire Families’ Wiped Out By Covid-19’s Carnage In Rural India
After devastating India’s biggest cities, the latest Covid-19 wave is now ravaging rural areas across the world’s second-most populous country. And most villages have no way to fight the virus. In Basi, about 1.5 hours from the capital New Delhi, about three-quarters of the village’s 5,400 people are sick and more than 30 have died in the past three weeks. It has no health-care facilities, no doctors and no oxygen canisters. And unlike India’s social-media literate urban population, residents can’t appeal on Twitter to an army of strangers willing to help. (Sen, Pradhan, Srivastava and Pollard, 5/17)
Reuters: India's COVID Tally Passes 25 Mln; Cyclone Complicates Efforts In Modi's State
India total COVID-19 caseload surged past 25 million on Tuesday as a powerful cyclone complicated the health crisis in one of the states where the disease is spreading most quickly. COVID-19 tests were administered to 200,000 people evacuated from coastal districts of the western state of Gujarat before the cyclone struck late on Monday and efforts were being made to try to limit any spread of infections. (5/18)
CNBC: India Covid Crisis Shows Public Health Neglect, Problems, Underinvestment
The world’s attention is now on India, the epicenter of the global pandemic as the country battles a deadly second wave of Covid-19. The unfolding human tragedy has laid bare the deep-rooted problems plaguing India’s public health system after decades of neglect and underinvestment. (Bala, 5/17)
In vaccine news in India and elsewhere overseas —
Reuters: India Unlikely To Resume Sizable COVID-19 Vaccine Exports Until October -Sources
India is unlikely to resume major exports of COVID-19 vaccines until at least October as it diverts shots for domestic use, three government sources said, a longer-than-expected delay set to worsen supply shortages from the global COVAX initiative. Battling the world's biggest jump in coronavirus infections, India halted vaccine exports a month ago after donating or selling more than 66 million doses. The move has left countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and many in Africa scrambling for alternate supplies. (Jain, Arora and Das, 5/18)
CIDRAP: UN Agencies Make Urgent Appeal For COVAX Vaccine Doses
Ahead of the G7 summit next month in the United Kingdom, UNICEF today put out an urgent call for leaders to pool their excess COVID-19 vaccine capacity to make up for a 125-million-dose gap in the COVAX program. The plea, which comes as the B1617 and other variants are sparking fresh surges in several countries, was followed by an announcement from US President Joe Biden that the United States will donate 20 million doses of approved vaccine abroad. (Schnirring, 5/17)
NPR: Doses From U.S. Vaccine Surplus Offered To Canadians
In the U.S., more than 36% of the population are fully vaccinated, although the pace of daily doses administered has been slowing. The cross-border vaccine offers have come after frustrations grew in Canada over the pace of arrival of the large numbers of doses the Canadian government has ordered. Even as provinces ramp up vaccinations this month, several remain under severe public health restrictions enacted to overcome a variant-driven wave of COVID-19 infections that has strained hospitals. As vaccine demand slips in the U.S., some Canadians have jumped at the chance to put America's surplus doses to use. (Jacobs, 5/17)
AP: South Africa's Tutu Gets Jab To Help Start Inoculation Drive
South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 89, came out of retirement Monday to help the country launch its drive to inoculate older citizens against the coronavirus. “All my life I have tried to do the right thing and, today, getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is definitely the right thing to do,” said Tutu, the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town who won the Nobel Prize Prize in 1984 for his peaceful work to end apartheid, South Africa’s previous regime of racist rule by the country’s white minority. (Magome, 5/17)
