Coronavirus news: Indian hospitals in oxygen SOS plea as 50% of Britons get first vaccine dose
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Your support makes all the difference.Hospitals in India were near “total collapse” as the country’s Covid-19 crisis spiralled further out of control amid a second wave of the killer disease, doctors are warning.
Record numbers of new cases put extreme pressure on hospital beds while oxygen supplies ran dangerously low across vast swathes of the country.
A number of medical centers issued desperate SOS pleas on social media, calling for oxygen container replacements. In Delhi, four hospitals were shut down earlier this week after supplies were exhausted.
The Supreme Court described the Covid-19 crisis as a “national emergency” and demanded the government to bring forward a plan to help stem rising cases and deaths.
On Saturday, health officials reported 346,786 new cases in the previous 24 hours, setting a world record for the third consecutive day, official figures show. Some 2,264 people died after contracting the infection, up from 2,263 on the day before.
Elsewhere, over half of the UK’s total population had received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to official figures. The UK first dose total stood at 33,496,293 after NHS England confirmed a further 107,656 jabs were administered as of 23 April.
Hungary gets taste of freedom as restaurants reopen
People in Hungary got a taste Saturday of what life was like before the coronavirus pandemic as restaurants and bars served in-person customers for the first time in nearly six months, the latest round of openings in a country hit hard by COVID-19.
Dominika Alapi, 31, rose early and brought her young son to one of her favorite cafes in central Budapest. Drinking a lemonade in the spring sun, she said the experience was "liberating."
"So many of us have been frustrated for so long, thinking, 'Will this be the rest of our lives?' Now it seems like everyone's gotten their life back," Ms Alapi said.
Other bars and restaurants in the capital filled their terraces with eager customers after Hungary reported Friday that 3.5 million people in the country, or around 35% of the population, had received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, a benchmark the government had set for when it would further ease restrictions.
AP
32 more deaths recorded for UK
The government said a further 32 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Saturday, bringing the UK total to 127,417.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have been 151,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
The government also said that, as of 9am on Saturday, there had been a further 2,061 lab-confirmed cases in the UK.
It brings the total to 4,403,170.
PA
That is all from us for today. We will be back for more rolling coverage of the Covid pandemic tomorrow.
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