India logs record new infections as Europe hopes peak may be over

SOUNDBITE "Shops, certain cultural and sporting activities, and (cafe) terraces" could reopen "around mid-May" in France depending on the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, Prime Minister Jean Castex says.

India's health ministry data showed nearly 315,000 new infections in the past 24 hours -- the most of any country since the pandemic began

India posted a record rise in new coronavirus cases on Thursday, in an alarming surge being blamed on a "double mutant" variant and super-spreader events, even as countries in Europe prepare to ease some of their restrictions and express tentative hopes that the peak may have passed. 

Indian health ministry data showed nearly 315,000 new infections in the past 24 hours -- the most any country has recorded in a day since the pandemic began -- as hospitals sent out desperate warnings that patients could die without fresh oxygen supplies.

The B.1.617 variant has already appeared elsewhere, including in the United States, Australia, Israel and Singapore, and on Thursday evening Belgium authorities confirmed it had been also been detected there in a group of Indian nursing students who arrived earlier this month from Paris.

The United Arab Emirates became the latest to join the list, announcing Thursday that it would suspend all flights from India. 

- Passing the peak? -

Nevertheless, cautious hopes are being voiced that the worst of the region's third wave could now have passed. 

He announced that from May 3 France will drop restrictions confining people to a 10-kilometre (six-mile) radius of their homes and that cafes, restaurants and cultural venues -- closed since October -- could begin to reopen "around mid-May", depending on the evolution of the health situation. 

Germany, for example, is expecting to open up Covid-19 vaccinations to all adults in June at the latest, Health Minister Jens Spahn said.

Europe's biggest economy is also in talks with Russia to buy 30 million doses of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, according to Saxony state premier Michael Kretschmer, who discussed the issue with President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.

Some 21.6 percent of the German population had received a first dose by Thursday, according to official data.

At the same time, the troubles plaguing another vaccine, AstraZeneca's, show no sign of abating, with the European Commission seeking to launch legal action against the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker for under-delivering doses to the EU, hobbling the bloc's early rollout of jabs.

A Norwegian climber confirmed Thursday that he has tested positive for Covid-19, in a blow to Nepal's hopes for a bumper mountaineering season on the world's highest peak.

"My diagnosis is Covid-19," Erlend Ness told AFP in a Facebook message. "I'm doing ok now... The hospital is taking care (of me)."

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