This video shows would be thieves to be wary - particularly around people who are filling their cars with petrol.
The footage, posted on Reddit, shows a customer filling his car up with diesel or petrol at a petrol station when he is approached by a white van.
The van parks closely to his car at high speed and three hooded men jump out at him, in what could be construed as an attack or robbery.
The would be thieves quickly fled the scene after the quick thinking driver fought back
But, the quick thinking customer leaps into action and sprays them with petrol in a bid to keep safe.
While two try to flee, one tries to get around the back of the car and jump into the drivers seat, but the car owner fights back and hoses him down too.
The van then starts to pull away while being sprayed with petrol, and the three hooded men are left running after it in a bid to escape.
The would be thieves do manage to escape from the scene, with the driver shooting petrol at them as they make a quick getaway.
The footage, posted on Reddit, is thought to have been filmed in Chile via a CCTV camera.
It is not clear what happened after the footage was captured.
Many Reddit users commented on the video, with one saying spraying the fuel was about 'sending a message' to the thieves as opposed to causing harm.
The would be thieves park as closely as possible to their target's vehicle
The would be victim acts fast and turns the nozzle on the thieves in a bid to stop the crime
They are pictured fleeing the scene as the driver continues to spray fuel into the van
Another pointed out that spraying the van with fuel would enable it to be more easily identified to authorities.
Now it's been been suggested religious leaders put pressure NOT to limit numbers - as it emerged more than 100,000 people eventually turned up.
Reports had previously warned large numbers posed a "danger to human life" and suggested that capacity should be capped at 15,000.
Sources, however, told reporters from Israeli Channel 13 that ministers had allegedly asked local cops to ensure large numbers would be able to enter.
That move was in an effort to make up for the cancellation of last year's event during the pandemic, the Times of Israel reported.
The head of the Shas religious political party allegedly wrote to Public Security Minister Amir Ohana saying "anyone who wants to come [to Meron] should be allowed to do so."
It is alleged that Ohana then approved that request so no limits were placed on the number of attendee.
One source reportedly said: "It's the greatest mass gathering in Israel. In no other event does the political pressure on police come close to the amount of pressure [brought forth] to hold the Meron event."
Ultra-Orthodox mourners attend the funeral of one of Israelis who diedCredit: EPA
A man mourns at Segula cemetery in Petah Tikva during the funeral of one victimCredit: AFP
Devastated families buried their loved ones ahead of the Jewish SabbathCredit: AFP
The chaos reportedly ensued when attendees slipped on a narrow metal walkway as thousands tried to leave - causing the deadly crush as bodies piled into each other, injuring at least 150, some critically.
The first funerals have now taken place for the victims in the wake of the stampede.
Devastated families have been identifying their loved ones and buried them ahead of the Jewish Sabbath that began on Friday evening.
Yosef and Moshe Elhadad, aged 18 and 12, from northern Israel, and Moshe and Joshua Englander, aged 14 and nine, from Jeruselum were all killed.
Others who lost their lives in the stampede were Yosef Amram and Eliezer Tzvi Yoza'af, 26, from America, father-of-11 Shimon Matalon, 38, and Shragee Gestetner, a rabbi and singer from Montreal.
Reports early Friday said at least 45 people had diedCredit: AP
Scattered personal items and debris are seen in the walkway where people were crushedCredit: Alamy
Pilgrims are pictured enjoying the festival moments before the disasterCredit: Twitter
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth sent a message of condolence to the country, after being "deeply saddened" by the incident.
She added that her thoughts were with the families of those who lost their lives.
The Queen's letter, addressed to the country's president Reuven Rivlin, wrote: "I was deeply saddened by news of the disaster at the Lag B'Omer festival in Meron, Israel.
"My thoughts are with all those who have been injured, and the friends and families of those who lost their lives. They have my deepest sympathies. Elizabeth R."
An early police investigation revealed that the slip created a "human avalanche", Ynet news reported.
Witnesses claimed cops blocked the exit - and a police chief has admitted that the tunnel was dangerous.
A survivor named David told Ynet: "Our bodies were swept along by themselves. People were thrown up in the air, others were crushed on the ground.
“There was a kid there who kept pinching my leg, fighting for his life. We waited to be rescued for 15 to 20 minutes in this crazy, terrible crush. it was awful.”
Meir, who was injured in the crush, told Ynet from his hospital bed: “It felt like an eternity, the dead were all around us.
Eli Beer, the head of the Hatzalah rescue services organisation, said young children were among the victims.
“To my sorrow, we found small children who had been crushed, we tried to resuscitate them and managed in a few cases to save them,” he said.
“We have to wake up, it’s shocking how many people were allowed to enter."
Only 10,000 people were supposed to attend the event but a crowd of 100,000 turned up.
Eli Pollack, the head of the United Hatzalah emergency rescue service, said the narrow exit was a "death trap".
Shoes, hats, baby strollers, smashed glasses and water bottles were left strewn on the ground in the walkway, while metal railings were ripped from the ground.
Witness Zohar said he saw victims "lose the colour in their faces".
“I was under the bleachers, I tried to go up toward all the chaos when I heard banging above, thud, thud, and people shouting ‘escape, escape, people are dying,'" he said.
“People fell from above and crushed each other, they squashed each other. people just fell, I will never forget the banging sounds, people flying all over."
Tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews were gathered at the tomb of a 2nd-century sageCredit: Reuters
Emergency personnel assisting people after after dozens of people were killed and others injuredCredit: AFP
More than 100,000 people packed into the festivalCredit: AFP
Ultra-Orthodox Jews sing and dance as they stand on tribunes at the Lag B'Omer eventCredit: Reuters
Zohar added: “We were walking out, everything was flowing, suddenly it stopped.
“Everyone was pressed up against each other and we did not understand why. I lifted up my head and I saw police blocking the entrance, I shouted to them ‘people are dying here.'”
A probe has been launched into the possibility that police negligence caused the stampede.
Northern District Commander Shimon Lavi, who oversaw the security arrangements at the site, said that he took responsibility for the disaster.
“I bear overall responsibility, for better or worse, and am ready for any investigation,” he said.
He added that the exact cause remained unclear.
Investigators have been sent to Meron to gather evidence.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said: “It was decided that the Police Internal Investigations Department will immediately examine whether there are suspicions of criminality by police in the tragedy in Meron.”
Paramedic Dov Maisel described "chaotic" scenes as rescuers desperately scrambled to save as many lives as they could.
He told Good Morning Britain: "I started hearing screaming and shouting... and immediately all the teams were alerted to the scene.
"It's so troubling... many kids and teenagers were injured as well and families separated, it's chaos."
Conflicting reports put the number of injured people at somewhere between 65 and 150Credit: AP
Many were killed in the horror crush as thousands attended the first festival since the covid outbreakCredit: AFP
A baby stroller and other items left on the floorCredit: Getty
Rescue workers take a dead body into an ambulance on Mount MeronCredit: Reuters
Mr Maisel said attendees were crushed as tens of thousands tried to force themselves through a narrow passageway.
He said: "It's a very small area on the mountain top, and thousands and thousands of people poured into this area, more than we expected.
"There was a bottleneck where people were squashed next to each other as they tried to get to an exit.
"People yelled behind them to stop people pushing through."
He said the disaster reminded him of terrorist attacks.
"I literally had a flashback to 20 years ago when Israel had a terror wave when restaurants and hospitals were being blown up, the scene was the same if not worse," he said.
"This is the worst disaster in Israeli history of a civilian event, this is shocking for the whole country."
What is the Lag B'Omer festival?
LAG B'Omer is a Jewish religious holiday celebrated on the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer, which began on March 28 and ends on May 16.
The day in the Hebrew month of Iya marks commemorates Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who lived in the second century.
The day marks when he revealed the secrets of kabbalah - a school of thought in Jewish mysticism - in the Zohar, or Book of Splendor.
The festival includes the lighting of bonfires, pilgrimages to the tomb of bar Yochai in Meron and customs at the tomb.
Another tradition that makes it a day of celebration is the anniversary of the plague that killed leading Jewish scholar Rabbi Akiva's 24,000 disciples coming to an end around 100AD.
Mr Maisel said 400 paramedics responded to the crush.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the tragedy as a "heavy disaster".
MDA spokesman Zaki Heller told Ynet news that the deaths were caused by severe overcrowding.
The mass gathering took place at the tomb of a 2nd-century sage for annual commemorations when the structure collapsed.
Videos posted on social media showed chaotic scenes as Ultra-Orthodox men clambered through gaps in sheets of torn corrugated iron to escape the crush, as police and paramedics tried to reach the wounded.
Initial reports said a stand had collapsed at one of the concerts - however, rescue services said the tragedy was caused by a crush and overcrowding.
The disaster is one of the worst peacetime tragedies in Israel’s history, matching the death toll from the 2010 Mount Carmel forest fire.
Jewish worshippers sing and dance as they stand on tribunes at the Lag B'Omer event in Mount Meron, northern IsraelCredit: Reuters
People were seen celebrating Lag BaOmer before the disaster struck this eveningCredit: AFP
Many were warned against gathering at the bonfire festival over Covid fearsCredit: AFP
An injured man talks to Israeli Health Minister Yuli EdelsteinCredit: AFP
The IDF, which sent its 669 rescue team to the site, said a roof had collapsed at the festival.
A pilgrim at the festival told a local news channel: "We thought maybe there was a [bomb] alert over a suspicious package.
"No one imagined that this could happen here. Rejoicing became mourning, a great light became a deep darkness."
Prime Minister Netanyahu said: "Everyone is praying for the recovery of the injured."
Zaki Heller said that due to the overcrowding, it took some time to help people who had been trapped.
Hundreds were crushed as attendees tried to pile out of the eventCredit: AFP
The stampede happened in this narrow walkwayCredit: AFP
Ambulances tried to make it through huge crowds of people
The collapse occurred just after midnightCredit: Reuters
"The rescue teams were called to one of the concerts near Bar Yochai’s tomb, where there was a terrible crush near a building. There were dozens trapped on a nearby stand and it took time to evacuate them," Heller said.
Other videos from the scene showed rescue workers were attempting to set up a field hospital - and dozens of ambulances could be seen trying to navigate through the huge crowds.
Reports indicate that around 100,000 people may have been attending the night's events, despite health officials warning that people should not gather in large crowds even as Covid cases were plummeting across Israel.
Around 5,000 police were deployed to secure the event, with the cops urging pilgrims to avoid incidents during the feast when bonfires are lit.
The country has seen Covid cases plummet since launching one of the world's most successful vaccination campaigns late last year.
The tomb is also considered to be one of the holiest sites in the Jewish world and it is an annual pilgrimage site.
Video shows huge crowd of 100,000 dancing moments before stampede that killed at least 44 at the festival of Lag B'Omer in Meron
India recorded its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic yet with 3,689 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Sunday was the fourth straight day India recorded more than 3,000 deaths as the second wave of the pandemic carries on unabated and keeps setting grim new records. Altogether 215,542 people have died from COVID-19 in the country.
The number of cases surged to 19.5 million with 392,488 new infections, government data showed. India became the first country to cross 400,000 daily cases on Saturday.
Healthcare systems are overwhelmed and a shortage of medical oxygen has emerged as the most serious challenge.
Thirty-four patients died because of oxygen shortages in hospitals in the capital New Delhi and the states of Andhra Pradesh and Haryana on Saturday, the Times of India reported.
Thirty-one more with COVID-19-like symptoms and “breathing difficulties” died in a hospital in Uttar Pradesh state, the report cited authorities as saying.
The body of a COVID victim is kept on a funeral pyre before last rites are performed [Anindito Mukherjee/Getty Images]
‘People dying in front of hospitals’
The latest figures came as medical equipment, including oxygen-generation plants, was flown into New Delhi from France and Germany as part of a huge international effort.
“We are here because we are bringing help that … will save lives,” Germany’s Ambassador to India Walter J Lindner said as 120 ventilators arrived late on Saturday.
“Out there, the hospitals are full. People are sometimes dying in front of the hospitals. They have no more oxygen. Sometimes [they are dying] in their cars.”
French Ambassador Emmanuel Lenain said his country wanted to show solidarity with India.
“The epidemic is still going on in one country. The world won’t be safe until we are all safe. So it’s a matter of urgency,” he said early Sunday following the delivery of eight oxygen-generation plants and dozens of ventilators from France.
There are growing fears about the surge of infections in rural regions where health infrastructure is already patchy and limited.
Hospitals in Delhi have continued to issue SOS calls for oxygen on social media, with the latest appeal posted by a children’s hospital on Twitter on Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting on Sunday to review the measures being taken to tackle the unprecedented surge.
India opened a new round of its vaccination drive on Saturday, extending coverage for all those above 18 years of age, but only a handful of states were able to deliver the jabs because of a shortage of vaccines. Only 86,000 newly eligible people took the shot, the government said.
International aid is also arriving from the United States and other countries that have promised support to India as its healthcare system is pushed to the brink of collapse.
Vote count in 5 states
Meanwhile, India’s election officials started counting votes in five states.
Vote counting in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry is scheduled to end on Sunday with results to be announced once the tallies are done.
The results are seen as a test of the impact the pandemic’s devastating second wave is having on support for Modi and his right-wing BJP party.
While Modi’s ruling BJP is seeking to consolidate its hold over more states, the main opposition Congress party and regional parties hope to regain political turf.
Most of the votes were cast in March but polling in some constituencies continued through April, just as India started detecting thousands of coronavirus infections every day.
Ahead of the surge in COVID-19 cases, leaders of all political parties, including Modi, led political rallies where large crowds flouted rules on social distancing and mask-wearing.
Modi has been criticised for focusing on the state elections instead of the pandemic. Some experts blame the rallies and mass religious gatherings attended by millions for the severity of the second wave.
The federal government has also been accused of failing to respond to a warning in early March from its own scientific advisers that a new and more contagious variant was taking hold in the country.
India is in the throes of one of its darkest moments since independence as a catastrophic second Covid-19 wave tears through it with dizzying speed.
The country recorded an all-time high of more than 386,000 new infections on Thursday, along with more than 3,500 deaths. Most experts say the actual number of fatalities is far higher.
Prime minister Narendra Modi and his government have been accused of exacerbating the crisis by failing to prepare after a sharp drop in cases led to claims the country was in the “endgame” of the pandemic.
The latest surge has surpassed anything endured since Covid-19 first struck. It has cut across the country’s many social, economic and geographic divides, affecting both rich and poor in rural and urban areas.
The turmoil has been intensified by a crippling shortage of life-saving supplies such as oxygen as well as new Covid-19 variants. New lockdowns are also threatening to derail the recovery of what had been the world’s fastest-growing large economy.
Here are the stories of four people confronting the crisis.
Aparna Hegde, doctor in Mumbai
During the first wave last year, Aparna Hegde’s ward at the government-run Cama hospital for women and children had about 60 patients at a time. As India’s second wave surged, the number of patients shot up to 100.
She said the strain on hospitals had exposed a lack of preparation and chronic neglect of public healthcare. India spends only about 1 per cent of gross domestic product on the sector.
“We don’t learn from our mistakes at all,” she said. “The first wave ended and we didn’t think that a second wave could come.”
Circumstances are so dire that Hegde was unable to secure a hospital bed and oxygen for a younger colleague with no comorbidities in Delhi in time to save him. “That young man should not have died,” she said.
Hegde, who runs Armman, a non-profit organisation that works with mothers and children, said the strain was affecting other spheres of public health, with potentially long-term consequences. Child immunisation campaigns had been derailed and pregnant mothers were struggling to receive treatment, she added.
“India doesn’t have to be like this. That’s the thing that’s heartbreaking,” she said. “That’s why it hurts that much more.”
Vishwanath Chaudhary, chief cremator in Varanasi
The ancient city of Varanasi, on the banks of the sacred Ganges river, is where many Hindus wish to be cremated, which they believe allows their soul to complete its journey to heaven and be released from the cycle of birth and death.
But the flow of bodies to Hindu crematoriums, as well as Muslim or Christian cemeteries, is relentless.
Vishwanath Chaudhary, 39, is the raja, or king, of the Dom caste, which has for generations worked at Varanasi’s cremation grounds.
With the number of bodies arriving daily rising to 100 — compared with as few as 15 last year — the searing heat and leaping flames have become unbearable.
“Our family has been traditionally involved in managing the crematoriums for generations. No one has ever seen anything like this,” Chaudhary said.
“[Last year] was nothing like what we are witnessing this time. The situation is horrific,” he added. “At such times humanity is often lost.”
So dire is the onslaught that it has sparked shortages of wood for the pyres, with vendors raising prices significantly.
Ram Vilas Gupta, migrant worker in Chandauli, Uttar Pradesh
More than 15 years ago, Ram Vilas Gupta left his family and village in India’s vast hinterland for the metropolis of Mumbai, where he drove a taxi and lived five to a room.
Like millions of other migrants, the 45-year-old was forced into an epic, desperate journey home last year after the country entered a nationwide lockdown and his savings ran out.
With India’s caseload falling sharply towards the end of last year — and the economy expected to roar back — he returned to Mumbai and was soon bringing in his pre-Covid monthly earnings of up to Rs18,000 ($243).
However, the recovery did not last. By late March, with Mumbai hard hit by a second Covid-19 wave, his taxi customers stopped coming and his earnings dried up.
Now back in his village and jobless once again, Gupta does not know how he will repay the Rs40,000 of debt he took out during last year’s crisis. “What to do?” he said. “All my savings [are gone]. We had a very difficult time.”
His biggest fear now is that the virus, which is tearing through rural India, will arrive in his village, where many still doubt it even exists.
“That’s why I came to the village — because of corona. Some people say there is no corona. But I am very afraid.”
Sourindra Bhattacharjee, university professor in Delhi
Like so many others in recent weeks, 57-year-old Sourindra Bhattacharjee tried and failed to find a hospital bed for his loved one.
India’s middle and upper-classes typically enjoy access to world-class healthcare, even as the poor depend on underfunded government hospitals.
But now, even those who can afford it are struggling to secure treatment.
After the blood oxygen levels of Bhattacharjee’s diabetic elder sister, Gouri, dropped below 80 per cent, the business professor consulted with doctors who advised him to get her hospitalised. A healthy blood oxygen reading is above 90 per cent.
But with beds at hospitals in Delhi full, his two attempts to get treatment for his sister failed. At one emergency room he was turned away by a doctor who pointed to a young man with oxygen levels as low as 13 per cent. “Look at his reading,” the doctor told him. “Now tell me, who should we choose?”
“I realised there was no point trying,” Bhattacharjee said. “I brought her home.” He found an oxygen cylinder for his sister, but he did not have the equipment needed to hook her on to it.
His sister is still at home with him while he tries to ensure she recovers — and not become infected himself. “She seems to be on the mend,” Bhattacharjee said. “God has been kind to me.”
India has seen another record daily rise in coronavirus infections, as 18 people died in a fire on a COVID-19 hospital ward.
A further 401,993 cases of coronavirus were reported in the country on Saturday, the first time the 400,000 mark has been surpassed.
And 3,523 deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 211,853, according to health ministry data.
Image:India has been hit by a shortage of oxygen as it is hit by one of the worst COVID crises of the pandemic
It comes as the country prepares to start a new COVID vaccination drive, despite some states warning they do not have enough doses to launch such an endeavour.
Sixteen patients and two healthcare workers died in the fire at the medical facility in Bharuch, Gujarat state, in the west of India, with reports stating at least another 30 patients were rescued.
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A police spokesman said the fire was put out within an hour and the cause was being investigated.
The blaze follows another fire in a Mumbai hospital just over a week ago which killed 13 patients.
More from Covid-19
India is the world's largest producer of vaccines, but is still struggling to get supplies to its 1.4 billion population.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted an emergency cabinet meeting on Friday, and it was announced that from Saturday all adults over 18 were to be vaccinated.
But some states, like Maharashtra, said they will not be able to manage this due to a lack of supplies.
New Delhi's health minister, Satyender Jain, said earlier in the week that the capital does not have the doses to vaccinate those aged 18 to 44 in the city.
The city's chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, said: "We hope that we will get vaccines tomorrow or the day after ... I ask you to please not queue up at vaccination centres on Saturday."
Several Indian states have run out of COVID-19 vaccines a day before a planned widening of a nationwide inoculation drive, authorities said, as new infections in the crisis-hit country surged to another daily record.
India’s vaccination drive for everyone older than 18 years is set to open from Saturday, but many states said they have run out of doses.
Worst-hit large states including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and capital territory Delhi said they had not been assured of adequate supplies and would not be able to start the vaccinations on Saturday.
Inoculation centres in Mumbai would be shut for three days starting Friday because of the shortage of vaccines, authorities said.
Only 2.2 million people were vaccinated on Thursday, the lowest daily figure for vaccinations in the past 10 days, broadcaster NDTV reported, indicating how the vaccine drive was floundering.
So far, only 10 percent of India’s 1.35 billion people – 45 years and above eligible under the drive that began in January – have received at least one vaccine dose.
A private security guard stands outside an empty vaccination centre after Mumbai’s municipal body issued a notice about no vaccinations for three days [Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters]In the southern state of Karnataka, home to the tech hub of Bengaluru, the state’s health minister said the vaccination drive for adults will not begin on May 1.
“The state government has not received any information from companies about when they will be able to supply these vaccines,” said Health Minister K Sudhakar.
India is the world’s biggest producer of vaccines but does not have enough stockpiles to keep up with the second deadly COVID-19 wave, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government planning to vaccinate all adults starting May 1.
“I registered to get a slot 28 days before, but now they are saying there are no vaccines,” Twitter user Jasmin Oza said in a video post.
In Modi’s home state of Gujarat, officials said vaccination for the 18-45 age group is expected to start in two weeks, as the state expects to receive vaccines by then.
“We will begin vaccinating those above 18 when we have the vaccine stocks. We are working very hard to get the vaccines, and I am confident we will be able to start the vaccination within the next 15 days,” Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said.
Officials in the eastern state of Odisha said they hoped to start vaccinations on Monday if vaccine stocks arrive.
Record rise in cases continues
India on Friday reported 386,452 news cases in the past 24 hours, while deaths from COVID-19 jumped by 3,498, according to health ministry data.
However, medical experts believe actual COVID-19 numbers could be five to 10 times the official tally.
India has added about 7.7 million cases since the end of February, when its second wave picked up steam, according to a Reuters news agency tally. In contrast, it took India nearly six months to add the previous 7.7 million cases.
The world’s second-most populous nation is in deep crisis, with hospitals and morgues overwhelmed by the pandemic, medicines and oxygen in short supply and strict curbs on movement in its biggest cities.
India had originally planned to vaccinate only 300 million of its highest-risk people by August, but widened the target due to the rise in cases.
However, its two vaccine producers were already struggling to increase capacity beyond 80 million doses a month due to a shortage of raw materials and a fire at the Serum Institute of India, which manufactures AstraZeneca’s vaccine in the country.
World sends medical aid
Meanwhile, world aid has started arriving in India as it struggles to combat what has been described as a humanitarian disaster.
The first United States’ flight carrying oxygen cylinders, regulators, rapid diagnostic kits, N95 masks and pulse oximeters arrived in the Indian capital on Friday.
“Just as India came to our aid early in the pandemic, the US is committed to working urgently to provide assistance to India in its time of need,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter.
“Today we are proud to deliver our first shipment of critical oxygen equipment, therapeutics and raw materials for vaccine production.”
The US will send more than $100m in medical aid, including 1,000 oxygen cylinders, 15 million N95 masks and 1 million rapid diagnostic test kits. It has also redirected its order of AstraZeneca supplies to India, to allow it to make more than 20 million doses.
Indian ground staff unload coronavirus relief supplies from the US at the Indira Gandhi International Airport cargo terminal in New Delhi [Prakash Singh/Reuters]Shipments from other countries continued to pour in, with a third one from the United Kingdom reaching earlier in the day. Romania and Ireland also sent supplies late on Thursday.
Two more weeks of oxygen crisis
India’s severe medical oxygen supply crisis is expected to ease by mid-May, a top industry executive told Reuters, with output rising by 25 percent and transport infrastructure ready to cope with a surge in demand.
India will receive the first batch of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine on May 1. Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund, which markets Sputnik V globally, has signed deals with five Indian manufacturers for more than 850 million vaccine doses a year.
Prominent US disease modeller Chris Murray, from the University of Washington, said the sheer magnitude of infections in India in a short period of time suggests an “escape variant” may be overpowering any prior immunity from natural infections in those populations.
“That makes it most likely that it’s B.1.617,” he said. But Murray cautioned that gene sequencing data on the coronavirus in India is sparse, and that many cases are also being driven by the UK and South African variants.
Carlo Federico Perno, head of microbiology and immunology diagnostics at Rome’s Bambino Gesù Hospital, said the Indian variant could not alone be the reason for the country’s huge surge, pointing instead to large social gatherings.
Modi has been criticised for allowing huge political rallies and religious festivals which have been super-spreader events in recent weeks.
Modi is scheduled to meet cabinet ministers on Friday as the wave of infections cripples the nation’s health system and threatens to affect key businesses. Absenteeism in offices and industries is growing with staff falling sick or taking leave to tend to sick relatives.
The body of a COVID victim is kept on a funeral pyre before last rites are performed [Anindito Mukherjee/Getty Images]
A private security guard stands outside an empty vaccination centre after Mumbai’s municipal body issued a notice about no vaccinations for three days [Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters]
Indian ground staff unload coronavirus relief supplies from the US at the Indira Gandhi International Airport cargo terminal in New Delhi [Prakash Singh/Reuters]