April 23 coronavirus news

A dose of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine is prepared on April 7 in New York City.

Both the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines appear to be setting off rare blood clotting events in a few people who get them, a top expert told vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Friday.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization practices is meeting to discuss whether to change guidance for J&J’s Janssen vaccine. The CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration recommended pausing its use after six reported cases of women who developed a rare blood clotting syndrome after receiving J&J’s vaccine in the United States.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is not yet authorized for use in the United States, but use of the vaccine resumed in many countries in Europe after UK and European health authorities said the benefits outweighed the risks. Both vaccines use a common cold virus called an adenovirus to deliver genetic material to stimulate an immune response.

“It’s unclear what causes this to develop,” he added.

“The incidence — and this is based on the European experience, and the United Kingdom experience — is anywhere from one case per 100,000 to one in 250,000 of vaccine recipients,” Streiff said.

“Median onset of the symptoms after vaccination is about nine to 10 days,” he said, although in Europe some cases appeared 24 days after vaccination.

Most cases have been among women and people as old as 77 have been affected.

Streiff said he did not think it was possible to screen patients for risk factors for the blood clotting syndrome. “I don’t think we can just focus on oral contraceptive users and obese patients,” he said.

But he said awareness has helped patients get quick treatment. “Recognition that this syndrome exists is helping to improve outcomes,” Streiff said.

ACIP is expected to vote on any changes later Friday. If ACIP recommends changes to the vaccine label – such as a warning, or changes to who it recommends should get the vaccine — CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky will sign off and then the FDA will have to make any label changes.

Members of the military inoculate people with the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at the Esperanza Community Vaccination Center in Philadelphia on April 9.

Pennsylvania has fully vaccinated more than 3 million of its residents, with first doses having been administered to over 45% of the population, its health department said.

That said, the state’s current 14-day average of new cases continues to increase, but is still below what it was at the height of the spring peak in May 2020.

Pennsylvania began receiving Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccine shipments in December. The state also got a shipment of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on March 1, but “shipments to Pennsylvania providers are currently paused out of an abundance of caution,” according to a news release from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

A worker places fans by beds in a stadium, which has been converted into a quarantine centre for Covid-19 coronavirus patients with mild symptoms, in Kolkata on April 21.

As India grapples with a devastating second wave of Covid-19 cases, the government’s top scientific adviser says while they saw the signs of a next surge, “the scale and the intensity of it was not clear.”

He added that India loosened restrictions “before we should have.”

As soaring demand overwhelms the health care infrastructure, VijayRaghavan, who is also a co-chair of India’s Covid-19 vaccine task force, admitted that PPE, ventilators, vaccines and hospital set ups need to be “scaled up enormously.”

Families and hospitals are raising the alarm on acute shortage of oxygen supply for days and VijayRaghavan emphasized that the government is making all the effort to address it.

“Oxygen availability has been pushed over the last few days, both in terms of diverting manufacturing, importing, distribution and looking at local availability. This hopefully will start seeing results soon,” he said Friday.

However, he admitted that the intensity of the second wave has rendered any amount of ramping up of health care capacity since the first wave “not yet sufficient.”

In the face of this massive public health crisis, escalating vaccine production and rollout remains important not just for India but for the world, he told CNN. However, it’s not just India’s responsibility to manufacture but also other countries’ responsibility to supply ingredients, such as the United States.

Once that happens, India can build up its capacity to fulfill its own needs as well as the world’s, he said.

India reported 332,730 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, the highest number of daily cases globally for the second day in a row. This brings India’s total to more than 16 million cases, according to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health. The country has added more than 1 million cases in four days.

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White House Covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said during Friday’s coronavirus briefing that the federal government expects daily vaccination rates to “moderate and fluctuate” during the next stage of the US vaccination program.

Speaking about the areas of focus during the next phase of the vaccination program, Zients said the US “will continue to vaccinate millions of Americans each day.” But he added that vaccinating remaining populations of Americans will “take time and focus.”

CNN previously reported that the seven-day average of new Covid-19 doses reported administered has dropped below 3 million shots per day for the first time in more than two weeks, according to data published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The average pace of new doses reported administered has been greater than 3 million shots per day for most of April, reaching a peak of nearly 3.4 million shots per day on April 13.

A new study published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found people with mild or asymptomatic forms of Covid-19 can have long-term medical problems.

According to the study, nearly 70% of patients who hadn’t been hospitalized for Covid-19 needed to go back to the doctor 28 to 180 days after their initial diagnosis, according to medical records of adults enrolled in an integrated health system in Georgia.

Scientists analyzed the records of more than 3,000 patients and found that the people who were most likely to need to go back to the doctor were those who were ages 65 or older, women, Black adults and people who had three or more underlying health conditions — although, 60% of those who had some ongoing medical problem were people who had no underlying health conditions.

The most common new diagnoses were a cough, shortness of breath, chest or throat pain and fatigue which may suggest these patients had lingering Covid-19 symptoms, while more than one in three of these patients also sought out new specialists for problems with their skin, mental health issues, stomach and heart problems, the study said.

More about this study: A limitation of the study was that it could not pinpoint if this need for new care was related to a long Covid-19 issue, or if the patient had missed an appointment during the stay-at-home orders.

It was unclear if the number of patient visits was higher for recovering Covid-19 patients than it was for patients who did not have Covid-19. A large study published Thursday in the journal Nature did find that people who had Covid-19 seem to face a much greater risk of needing medical care in the six months after their diagnosis.

“Clinicians and health care systems should be aware of the possibility of medical encounters related to a previous diagnosis of COVID-19 beyond the acute illness,” the study said.

Japan has declared a targeted state of emergency for Tokyo, Osaka and two other prefectures in an attempt to halt a surge in coronavirus cases, just three months before the Tokyo Olympics.

CNN international correspondent Selina Wang has the latest from Osaka and answers’ questions about the measure.

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Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are meeting now to discuss how to move forward with Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen coronavirus vaccine.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is scheduled to meet until to 5 p.m. ET Friday and to vote on updated recommendations for use of the vaccine and whether it’s likely to be linked to a rare blood clotting syndrome they are calling thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS).

Other groups have called it vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia or VITT, but ACIP is sticking with more neutral language that doesn’t presume vaccines are causing the condition.

It’s characterized by a rare type of blood clot in the brain — and possibly other large blood clots — along with a low number of blood clotting cells called platelets. Some blood specialists have said they believe it’s caused by an unusual immune reaction that targets platelets, causing them to glob together into clots.

ACIP will hear about any additional cases reported since their last meeting earlier in the month. The cases of six women who suffered TTS, including one who died, prompted CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration to recommend a pause in giving the vaccine. ACIP members said they needed more time and more information before deciding on whether and how to change recommendations for giving the vaccine.

The CDC and US Food and Drug Administration recommended a pause on use of the J&J coronavirus vaccine last week following the six reported US cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot. The cases were among more than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered in the United States.

Read more about today’s meeting here.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during the opening session of the virtual US Leaders Summit on Climate from the Downing Street Briefing Room in central London on April 22.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday the UK is getting control of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We’re getting through this. There’s no question that things are better than they were,” Johnson said to broadcasters, adding that he thought the next stage of reopening would proceed as planned on May 17, with all restrictions hopefully lifted on June 21.

According to data from the John Hopkins University, the UK reported 2,728 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, a drastic change from early January when the country reported more than 68,000 cases.

A worker arranges medical oxygen cylinders to transport to hospitals for the Covid-19 coronavirus treatment in a facility on the outskirts of Hyderabad on April 23.

As India struggles with an acute shortage of oxygen supply, the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) will airlift and import 23 mobile oxygen generation plants and containers from Germany, according to a statement released from the Ministry of Defense.

These plants will be deployed in AFMS hospitals that are catering to Covid-19 patients and are expected to arrive in India within a week, it added.

These easily portable plants have a capacity to produce 40 liters of oxygen per minute and 2,400 liters an hour.

In this March 3 photo, a pharmacist holds a vial of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine at a hospital in Bay Shore, New York.

A subcommittee of vaccine advisers to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will recommend Friday that the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine continue to be used in the United States, an expert familiar with the situation said Friday. 

​The source required anonymity because the subcommittee’s deliberations have not yet been made public. ​

Thursday afternoon, the Covid-19 Vaccine Working Group, a subcommittee of CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, met to discuss the fate of the J&J vaccine. The vaccine’s rollout has been on pause since April 13, after a small number of people experienced blood clots after taking the shot. 

The full committee is scheduled to meet from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Friday to consider what recommendation to make to the CDC. Typically, the agency accepts the recommendations of this committee, which is made up of outside experts. 

Late in the afternoon on Thursday, the subcommittee was still debating whether to ​recommend a ​warning on the vaccine ​or, in addition, it could also suggest that people under a certain age not take the shot. ​

The blood clot cases that led to the pause were all in people under the age of 48. Six women experienced blood clots within 6 to 13 days after taking the shot, according to the CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration. One man experienced clots 21 days after taking the vaccine during the clinical trial last fall, according to J&J. 

The expert said there have been more cases since then, but declined to give a number. 

Oregon health officials said Thursday they and the CDC are looking into the death of a woman in her 50s who had the rare type of blood clot after receiving the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine. 

The Texas Department of Health also reported Thursday that a woman had been hospitalized with blood clots after the vaccine. 

The expert said there was no pressure on the advisory subcommittee to make a recommendation one way or the other about the J&J vaccine. 

“There was no hint that the CDC was trying to guide the committee. The committee was truly independent,” the expert said. “I was impressed this was done straight on and totally professionally. I have been in meetings where it is clear what the CDC leadership wants, and there was no hint of that yesterday.” 

World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote Thursday in the New York Times that the world’s wealthiest countries face “a test of character” in vaccine distribution.

In an opinion piece, Tedros criticized vaccine nationalism for undercutting the mission of the COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative at WHO, saying that some countries have placed orders for their entire population several times over while leaving the rest of the world “exactly where they are.”

“We have all the tools to tame this pandemic everywhere in a matter of months. It comes down to a simple choice: to share or not to share. Whether or not we do is not a test of science, financial muscle or industrial prowess; it’s a test of character,” he wrote.

Vials of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine are produced at a Recipharm plant in Monts, France, on April 22.

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said on Friday that the company is working to get a Covid-19 booster shot to address coronavirus variants authorized by late summer or early fall. 

Bancel called coronavirus variants “my biggest worry,” and said Moderna is working on different strategies for its vaccine to address them, including a vaccine that would address the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa. 

The preclinical data looks very encouraging, Bancel said, and the clinical data should come as early as May. 

They are also looking at increasing capacity for next year, he added. 

A medical worker prepares a syringe with a dose of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399 union hall vaccination site in Chicago, Illinois, on April 6.

Dr. Peter Marks, head of the US Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, said on Thursday that the FDA is prepared to move as quickly as it can on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is meeting Friday to discuss J&J’s Covid-19 vaccine, after a pause in its rollout due to a small number of cases of rare blood clotting.

National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins speaks during a public vaccination event in Washington, DC, on March 16.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said on “Good Morning America” Friday that the pause on the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine has allowed a greater understanding about the risk of rare blood clots and how to treat them. 

The US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is meeting today to discuss the J&J vaccine. 

A package of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine is seen at a health center in Los Angeles, California, on April 15.

Vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention meet today at 11 a.m. ET to make recommendations for use of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine after it was put on hold to investigate a potential link to serious blood clots.

The CDC and US Food and Drug Administration recommended a pause on use of the J&J coronavirus vaccine last week following six reported US cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot. The cases were among more than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered in the United States.

Here are some key things to know about today’s meeting:

What the panel is investigating: The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met on April 14, but members said they needed more information about the J&J vaccine and the blood clot cases. They are investigating whether there are more cases and whether other types of blood clots might be associated with the vaccine. The pause was also intended to give experts time to inform doctors about how to look for and treat these clots.

Dr. William Schaffner, a non-voting ACIP member and infectious diseases professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told CNN that the committee delayed making a decision because there will likely be more reports of blood clots connected to the vaccine, and members need to understand the demographics of those cases.

What could happen next: ACIP could recommend that use of the vaccine resume with no changes, or the committee could recommend that the US stop using the J&J vaccine altogether.

Schaffner said it’s more likely that ACIP will recommend that use of the vaccine resume with a warning about possible adverse effects — and potentially, advice to the highest-risk populations to steer clear of this vaccine altogether.

Potential impacts on US vaccine supply: President Biden and other officials have said whatever decision is made about the Covid-19 vaccine, it will not hinder the vaccination effort in the US.

The FDA requested Monday that manufacturing of the J&J vaccine be paused at a Baltimore Emergent BioSolutions facility while it conducts an investigation into contamination that affected at least one batch of J&J’s vaccine.

CDC director Rochelle Walensky said that while the CDC conducts a risk-benefit analysis of the J&J vaccine, the agency has reached out to more than 10,000 providers to inform them about what to watch out for, in case other people experience similar adverse events.

A health worker administers a dose of the BioNTech/Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination clinic in Derby, England, on March 31.

Studies have shown that several vaccines are highly effective in preventing people getting seriously ill from Covid-19. Now, early results from a survey in the UK show two commonly used vaccines also significantly reduce the number of people getting infected in the first place. 

A single shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines reduces Covid-19 infections by 65%, while two doses cuts out 70% of infections, according to the Covid-19 Infection Survey, coordinated by the University of Oxford, the UK Office of National Statistics and the Department for Health and Social Care. 

The numbers are particularly promising for the prevention of symptomatic infections. Some 74% were reduced with just one shot, and 90% with two. And vaccination was just as effective in people in the vulnerable over-75 age group as it was in younger people. 

Two studies highlighting the results were published Friday as pre-prints and have not been peer-reviewed. They analyzed 1.6 million test results from nose and throat swabs taken from more than 373,000 people between December and the start of April. 

But experts advise people to continue with Covid-19 prevention measures, as some infections will still be transmitted – particularly when large numbers of the population have had just one dose in a two-dose regimen or haven’t been vaccinated at all.

Sarah Walker, Chief Investigator and Academic Lead for the Covid-19 Infection Survey from the University of Oxford, said that because vaccines weren’t 100% effective, they wouldn’t reduce infections to zero – but they could get numbers to a level where they are controllable.

“There is a difference between an acute crisis and an ongoing underlying chronic problem – in infectious diseases, we talk about a disease becoming endemic, meaning it is always there and you just have to deal with it, like malaria in sub-Saharan Africa,” Walker told CNN.

“Every infection provides the opportunity for the virus to mutate into a new variant that the vaccines are less effective against, so it is on a knife edge,” Walker said, adding: “We need as many people to get vaccinated and reduce the virus levels to as low as possible.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pictured addressing a public meeting in Sivasagar district of India's Assam state in January.

In the face of a massive public health crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stayed largely silent on the fierce second wave of Covid-19 until recent weeks. In intermittent statements throughout April, he acknowledged the “alarming” rise in cases, but was slow to take containment measures besides ordering states to increase testing and tracking, and asking the public to stay vigilant.

It wasn’t until Tuesday that Modi finally emphasized the urgency of the situation, but by then, India’s outbreak was already the world’s biggest in terms of absolute daily numbers. Nearly 28% of all new cases worldwide in the past week have come from India, according to the World Health Organization.

Experts and health care workers say the second wave advanced so rapidly because the public let its guard down after the first wave subsided. This complacency was exacerbated by government officials, like Modi and his health minister, celebrating the country’s apparent recovery. Leaders allowed a massive weeks-long Hindu pilgrimage to proceed with millions of attendees traveling across numerous states.

The anger has also been heightened this time by Modi flying out to hold political rallies with thousands in attendance for the upcoming elections in four states and one union territory.

As cases skyrocketed, several of the competing parties stepped back from the campaign trail. Modi’s party announced it would also limit its rallies to “small public gatherings,” – with a cap of 500 people.

This week, Modi canceled his campaign trip to West Bengal to instead attend high-level Covid meetings.

But Modi and the BJP’s rallies throughout March and April, and their late action, undermine his message to the public for greater vigilance, said Harsh Mander, writer and human rights activist.

“There’s a blaming on ordinary people,” he told CNN. “But what we have seen is that the prime minister has actually gathered large masses of people, none of them wearing masks and keeping any kind of distancing in political gatherings.”

Read the full story here:

A mass cremation of victims who died due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), is seen at a crematorium ground in New Delhi, India, April 22, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Related article As bodies pile up, India's leaders face rising public anger over second Covid-19 wave

CNN’s Aditi Sangal and Esha Mitra contributed to this report.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, second from right, declares a state of emergency for Tokyo and three other prefectures during the government task force meeting on COVID-19 measures in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday, April 23.

Four prefectures in Japan will go into a state of emergency starting Sunday, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said in a cabinet meeting Friday.

Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures will be under a state of emergency through until May 11, much shorter than previous orders which lasted 7 and 10 weeks.

Japan is in the midst of a fourth wave and there are elevated restrictions currently across 10 prefectures – mainly covering Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas.

Under the state of emergency, large commercial spaces like shopping malls will be barred from operating, except to provide essential items and services. Establishments that serve alcohol will be asked to close and dry establishments are to close from 8 p.m. or face a fine.

A worker prepares to fill oxygen cylinders for hospital treatment of Covid-19 patients, at a factory in Peshawar, Pakistan, on April 12.

Pakistan is going to be calling in its army to help the police in “enforcing” Covid-19 guidelines in the country, Prime Minister Imran Khan said in a televised address to the nation on Friday.

Khan said he doesn’t want to lock down the country “to save the livelihoods of the poorest in the country” but due to “a very few number” of people following coronavirus safety guidelines, there could soon be a situation where there will be “no other option” than to enforce a lockdown. 

A fresh series of restrictions will include closing outdoor dining and gyms and changing market opening hours. Schools up to grade 12 will remain closed until after Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, in mid-May.

The announcement comes as Pakistan faces an oxygen shortage, with the national health system facing mounting pressure.

Speaking alongside Khan on Friday, Asad Umar, the head of the National Command Operation Center on coronavirus (NCOC) said that 90% of the country’s oxygen supply has now been used and that an “emergency” situation is pending.

According to the Ministry of Health, the positivity rate of infection acr has been, on average, consistently above 10 percent on average across the country and the health system is currently under pressure. 

Pakistan currently has 101,818 active cases, which is higher than the peak reached in the summer of 2020.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn takes off his face mask before addressing a press conference in Berlin, Germany, on April 23.

Germany’s new “emergency brake” rules to curb the spread of coronavirus for areas with high infection rates will come into force Saturday, Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday.

The controversial new law gives the national government power to impose lockdowns on states for the first time, ending the patchwork of state-by-state measures. 

The federally imposed shutdown will affect almost all of Germany, with only a few municipalities having low enough levels of transmission to avoid the restrictions.

Demonstrators rally against the German government's proposed coronavirus measures in Berlin, on Wednesday, April 21.

Spahn’s announcement comes a day after the bill passed the upper house of Parliament.  

At the moment Germany’s new infection rate is 164 per 100,000 residents.

Speaking at the same press conference as Spahn, Lars Schaade, Deputy Head of Germany’s health agency the Robert Koch Institute, said that “infection numbers are still too high,” however “coronavirus case numbers do not appear to be rising as fast.”

But Spahn said Germany’s vaccination campaign is gathering pace. 

As of Friday, 18.5 million people have been vaccinated, Spahn said.

Around 22% of Germans have now received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine and nearly 7% received their second coronavirus vaccine shot.

On Friday, Germany recorded 27,543 new coronavirus infections – a rise of 1,712 cases compared to the same day last week, according to RKI data.

The country’s coronavirus deaths stood at 265 within the last 24 hours, bringing the total tally of deaths to 81,158.

A policeman inspects a burnt-out room at the Vijay Vallabh Hospital in Virar, on the outskirts of Mumbai, after a fire broke out in the hospital's ICU, on Friday, April 23.

At least 13 patients died after a fire broke out at 3 a.m. local time in a hospital dedicated to Covid-19 patients in Virar, a city north of Mumbai in Maharashtra state, a hospital official said on Friday.

“Suddenly sparks fell from the AC (Air Conditioner) and within two minutes it was on fire,” said Dr. Dilip Shah, CEO of Vijay Vallabh hospital.

A short-circuit in an air conditioning unit of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) ward caused the fire, initial reports showed, according to Maharashtra State Government Cabinet Minister Eknath Shinde, who visited the hospital Friday.

People inspect an ICU ward after a fire broke out in Vijay Vallabh Covid-19 hospital at Virar, near Mumbai, India, on Friday, April 23.

There were a total of 70 patients at the hospital – of which 17 were in the ICU. The four surviving patients have been moved to another hospital.

“We are making arrangements to shift all patients immediately, we need to save their lives,” Minister Shinde said.

The incident comes two days after 24 Covid-19 patients died waiting for oxygen at Zakir Hussain Hospital in the Nashik district of Maharashtra after an accidental oxygen leakage, according to Suraj Mandhare, a senior Nashik district official. 

A high-level committee has been set up to probe the incident and experts are being consulted to ensure such accidents are not repeated, Maharashtra’s Health Minister Rajesh Tope told reporters Thursday. 

More than 50 vaccination centers in Mumbai are not operating on Friday due to a “limited supply of vaccine,” the Mumbai Municipal Corporation, BMC, announced on Twitter.

Another 18 sites would be functional until supplies last, it added.

The corporation released a list of vaccination sites in the city, marking those that were not functional.

Some background: As the second wave of Covid-19 cases sweeps India, this is not the first time that Mumbai has had to suspend vaccination drives.

India produces more than 60% of all vaccines sold globally, and is home to the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine maker. However, as vaccine shortage becomes a problem in the face of this crisis, the Indian government and SII have shifted focus to prioritizing their own citizens.

After writing on Twitter that it had less than an hour’s worth of oxygen left for its Covid-19 patients on Friday morning, Max Healthcare, a prominent Indian hospital group, said two of its hospitals in the capital received emergency supplies, but that they would only last two hours.

Public and health officials in New Delhi have been raising the alarm about the acute shortage of oxygen supplies at hospitals, despite the increased allocation of those supplies amid the devastating second wave of the pandemic.

Max Healthcare is one of the medical groups that successfully petitioned the Delhi High Court to divert oxygen supplies to hospitals on Wednesday. The central government has since placed a temporary ban on the use of oxygen for industrial activities and diverted the supplies for medical care. 

Sunil Saggar, CEO of the Shanti Mukand hospital in New Delhi, told local media that six private hospitals in Delhi ran out of oxygen on Thursday, including the Shanti Mukand.

A Thursday press statement from the prime minister’s office said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting on Thursday to review oxygen supplies, noting that the demands of 20 Indian states had been met.

The statement added that the government was able to allocate 6,822 metric tons of oxygen, when only 6,785 metric tons had been requested.

The government had been warned of the country’s oxygen shortages back in November when consumption quickly increased during the first phase of the pandemic. 

A parliamentary committee highlighted that oxygen use for medical purposes had increased from 1000 metric tons a day to 3000 metric tons during the pandemic’s previous peak.

Industrial use of oxygen counted for 6000 metric tons before the pandemic, according to the committee’s report.

As India’s second deadly wave continues to surge, crematorium grounds in Delhi have been overwhelmed – with families turning to makeshift mass cremation sites.

The scenes underscore the severity of India’s second wave, acutely felt in the capital.

In total, Delhi has recorded a total of 956,348 cases of coronavirus and 13,193 deaths, according to the city’s health authority.

On Thursday, Delhi recorded 306 new Covid-19 deaths, according to the Delhi Health Department’s evening bulletin. 

With a shortage of hospital and ICU beds, oxygen supply and testing, India’s healthcare system is buckling. Cities across the country are reporting far larger numbers of cremations and burials under coronavirus protocols than official Covid-19 death tolls, according to crematorium and cemetery workers, media and a Reuters review of government data.

A mass cremation of victims who died from coronavirus is seen at a crematorium ground in New Delhi, on April 22.

A man performs the last rites for his wife who died of Covid-19 during a mass cremation at a crematorium in New Delhi, India on April 20.

A body waiting for cremation is seen among funeral pyres of Covid-19 victims at a ground that has been converted into a mass crematorium in New Delhi, on April 21.

Nationwide, 332,730 new cases of coronavirus were reported on Friday, bringing the total to more than 16 million cases, according to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health.

Relatives of a patient who died of Covid-19 mourn outside a hospital in Ahmedabad, India, on April 17.

The second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in India has devastated lives and completely overwhelmed hospitals and medical resources.

A new global record: India reported 332,730 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, the highest number of daily cases globally for the second day in a row. This brings India’s total to more than 16 million cases, according to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health. The country has added over 1 million cases in four days.

India also reported its highest single-day death toll since the pandemic began, with 2,263 deaths Friday. 

Shortage of oxygen: At least six private hospitals in the Indian capital New Delhi ran out of oxygen Thursday, according to the city’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. He added that supplies had not reached New Delhi, even after the central government allocated 480 metric tonnes of oxygen for the capital.

Workers prepare to fill oxygen cylinders for hospital treatment of Covid-19 patients, on the outskirts of Jabalpur, India, on April 18.

Health care infrastructure strained: As of Friday morning, there were only 25 ICU beds available in the capital, a Delhi government dashboard showed. The Delhi High Court also revoked a government order on Thursday that required Covid-19 testing labs to provide results in less than 36 hours. The court noted that labs are “refusing and turning away people” due to this and stated that “there is no reason to now require generation of reports positively within 36 hours, particularly when the pandemic is four times larger than what it was last year.” 

A black market for medicines has emerged: With Covid-19 cases soaring in India, demand has spiked for Remdesivir. But as hospitals face shortages, black market traders are charging up to 10 times the recommended retail price for for the antiviral drug, despite no clarity on its effectiveness in treating the virus.

Vaccinations are carried out at an indoor stadium in Guwahati, India, on April 22.

Vaccinations: India has administered 135 millions doses of the Covid-19 vaccine as of Thursday, according to Indian health minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan. Currently, India is only vaccinating its health care workers, front line workers and people aged 45 and above. Starting May 1, it will open up vaccination to everyone 18 and older, which will be its biggest cohort. It is indicated that either this age group will have to get vaccines from state government or buy them from private providers.

A public notice hangs outside Shanti Mukund Hospital on April 22 in New Delhi, India.

At least six private hospitals in the Indian capital New Delhi ran out of oxygen Thursday, the city’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said in a letter to the union health minister on Thursday.

Even after the central government allocated 480 metric tonnes of oxygen for the capital on Wednesday, Delhi’s advocate informed the Delhi high court on Thursday that the supplies had still not reached the capital. 

On Thursday, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order asking states to not restrict the movement of medical oxygen and the high court also asked for a special corridor to be created for the movement of oxygen, adding that non-compliance with the orders for allocation of oxygen would result in a “grave loss of life.”

Delhi recorded 306 deaths from Covid-19 on Thursday, according to the Delhi Health Department’s evening bulletin. Delhi has recorded a total of 956,348 cases of coronavirus and 13,193 deaths according to the Delhi Health Department on Thursday evening.

A health worker prepares a Covid-19 test sample at a testing centre in Srinagar, India on April 21.

India has reported the highest number of daily coronavirus cases globally for the second day in a row, as the country grapples with a worsening crisis.

On Friday, 332,730 new cases were recorded, bringing India’s total to more than 16 million cases, according to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health. The country has added over 1 million cases in four days.

India also reported its highest single-day death toll since the pandemic began, with 2,263 deaths Friday.

In the capital New Delhi, at least six private hospitals ran out of oxygen Thursday, Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said in a letter to union health ministers.

Even after the central government allocated 480 metric tons of oxygen for Delhi Wednesday, Delhi’s advocate informed the city’s high court Thursday that the supplies had still not reached the capital.

The Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order asking states not to restrict the movement of medical oxygen. The high court also asked for a special corridor to be created for the movement of oxygen.

As of Friday morning, there were only 25 available ICU beds in the capital, a Delhi government dashboard showed.

Later today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be chairing high-level meetings to review the Covid-19 situation in the country.

Janssen Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines that aren't being given out are seen on April 15 in Los Angeles, CA.

Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are scheduled to meet Friday to discuss how to move forward with Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen coronavirus vaccine.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is scheduled to meet from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Friday and to vote on updated recommendations for use of the vaccine and whether it is likely to be linked to a rare blood clotting syndrome called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS).

TTS is characterized by a rare type of blood clot in the brain – and possibly other large blood clots – along with a low number of blood clotting cells called platelets. Some blood specialists have said they believe it’s caused by an unusual immune reaction that targets platelets, causing them to glob together into clots.

ACIP will hear about any additional cases reported since their last meeting earlier in the month. The cases of six women who suffered TTS, including one who died, prompted CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration to recommend a pause in rolling out the vaccine.

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South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety granted conditional approval for two locally developed Covid-19 self-testing kits Friday, according to a press release.

The testing kits produced by SD Biosensor and Humasis are already used in European countries including Germany, Switzerland, Holland and Austria. Users should be able to get a result within 15 minutes of testing, but the sensitivity level for the at-home kits is lower than the more widely used PCR-based testing.

The sensitivity rates of the newly approved testing kits are 90% and 89.4% for SD Biosensor and Humasis respectively, according to the Ministry statement.

The two companies will need to provide additional clinical trial test results within three months.

South Korea recorded 797 new coronavirus cases from Thursday, raising the national total of confirmed cases to 117,458, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

As of midnight Friday, more than 2 million people have received their first dose of coronavirus vaccine and 79,151 people were fully vaccinated, KDCA said.