India continues to face record numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths as a torrid wave of the coronavirus pandemic tested the limits of its healthcare system.
In the last three days, India, the second worst-hit country from the pandemic after the United States, has experienced the record number of cases that spiraled to 346,786 new cases, making it the highest single-day count of infections since the outbreak of the coronavirus in late 2020.
Across the second most populous country in the world, the number of deaths from viral infections also climbed to 2,624 on Friday.
On Saturday, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has underscored that the world must fight the global pandemic challenge together and expressed solidarity with neighboring India.
“I want to express our solidarity with the people of India as they battle a dangerous wave of COVID-19,” Khan said in a tweet on Saturday.
Khan said his nation, which has also seen record COVID-19 deaths, is praying for the speedy recovery of patients suffering from the pandemic in the neighborhood and around the world.
I want to express our solidarity with the people of India as they battle a dangerous wave of COVID-19. Our prayers for a speedy recovery go to all those suffering from the pandemic in our neighbourhood & the world. We must fight this global challenge confronting humanity together
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) April 24, 2021
Pakistan and India have been in a state of tension much of their existence since 1947 with wars and conflicts dividing the two nuclear-armed nations. The relations nosedived in August 2019 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s ultranationalist administration in New Delhi imposed a strict clampdown in Kashmir resulting in a huge humanitarian disaster.
It has only been a few months that the two countries silenced their guns in the disputed Himalayan region and have held talks on water issues.
Both countries have born the brunt of coronavirus waves that have exposed healthcare and medical services inadequacies in their systems.
India is in the midst of its second wave of the deadly virus and according to a report in The New York Times, the last two weeks have seen the new cases jump by 156% and the death rate has risen by 221%.
The recent rate of infections in India has been attributed to a double mutant of coronavirus. According to the Indian Health Ministry, a new form of coronavirus named B.1.617 has proved to be more infectious, playing havoc with lives across the country.
India has reported 16.6 million infections and 189,544 deaths with reports of a breakdown in healthcare services at several hospitals, where oxygen supplies face massive demands and people wait outside the facilities for treatment.
