Calls widen for national lockdown in India
Police in Bangalore patrolled the streets on Monday (May 10), stopping vehicles, checking IDs, and even herding and whacking lockdown violators.
Many states across India have imposed their own lockdowns rules to curb the spread of the coronavirus,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to announce a nationwide lockdown, despite mounting calls for one.
India reported 3,754 deaths on Monday.
That’s down slightly from peak numbers reported the day before, though some experts say actual figures could be far higher.
On Monday, U.S. company Eli Lilly and Co said it signed licensing deals with Indian drugmakers to make and sell its arthritis drug baricitinib for the treatment of COVID patients.
Meanwhile, medical relief continued to pour in from other countries around the world.
Crowds of people queued to get vaccines at a center in Punjab, but calls for social distancing went out the window.
Dr. Jasmine is the center manager:
"We had to call the police to maintain distancing but to no avail. People are not listening to us at all and we are telling them continuously since morning to maintain distancing."
India is the world's largest vaccine-producing nation, with the Serum Institute of India having mass-produced the AstraZeneca vaccine.
But as of Sunday, the country had fully vaccinated just 2.5% of its population -- over 34.3 million people -- according to government data.
Delhi's health minister said his city was running out of vaccines, the NDTV news channel reported, saying they have just three to four days of supplies of AstraZeneca's vaccine remaining.
