Coronavirus live news: India passes 20m cases, US average daily infections fall below 50,000

The US Food and Drug Administration is preparing to authorise Pfizer and German partner BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for adolescents aged between 12 and 15 years by early next week, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing federal officials familiar with the agency’s plans.

An approval is highly anticipated after the drugmakers said in March that the vaccine was found to be safe, effective and produced robust antibody responses in 12- to 15-year-olds in a clinical trial.

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Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi called for a nationwide lockdown as the country’s tally of coronavirus infections surged past 20 million on Tuesday.

“The only way to stop the spread of Corona now is a full lockdown … GOI’s inaction is killing many innocent people,” Congress MP Gandhi said on Twitter, referring to the Government of India.

According to Reuters, it’s taken the country just over four months to add 10m cases, versus more than 10 months for its first 10m.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is reluctant to impose a national lockdown due to the economic fall out, yet several states have imposed various social restrictions.

Modi’s administration came under fire in an editorial in the Times of India on Tuesday, which said: “What the recent weeks reveal is that both Centre and states have been woefully unprepared for the second wave.”

The surge in Covid-19 in India has coincided with a dramatic drop in vaccinations, due to problems with supplies and delivery.

Despite being the world’s biggest producer of vaccines, India does not have enough for itself, Reuters reports.

Public forecasts by its only two current vaccine producers show their total monthly output of 70-80m doses would increase only in two months or more, although the number of people eligible for vaccines has doubled to an estimated 800 million since 1 May.

Just 9.5% of the population of 1.35 billion has received at least a single dose.

Cambodia has reported a daily record of 938 new coronavirus cases, the health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday, a day after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered the end of a blanket lockdown in the capital Phnom Penh.

The country has recorded one of the world’s smallest Covid-19 caseloads, but the recent outbreak that was first detected in late February has caused infections to climb to 16,299, with 107 deaths.

The prime ministers of the UK and India are to meet virtually on Tuesday as the two countries agree a trade deal that is set to create more than 6,000 jobs in Britain.

Boris Johnson and Narendra Modi will hold talks after Johnson was forced to cancel his planned visit to Delhi due to the worsening coronavirus situation there.

Downing Street said the package contains more than £533m of new investment from India into the UK, expected to create more than 6,000 jobs in sectors such as health and technology, Press Association reports.

This includes a roughly £240m investment by the Serum Institute of India, supporting clinical trials, research and possibly the manufacturing of vaccines.

Meanwhile, Downing Street said British businesses have secured export deals with India worth more than £446m, which is expected to create more than 400 British jobs.

During the virtual talks, the two leaders are expected to agree an enhanced trade partnership, which Number 10 said will pave the way for a future UK-India free trade agreement.

India’s official count of coronavirus cases has surpassed 20 million, nearly doubling in the past three months, after 357,229 new cases were recorded in the 24 hours to Tuesday. There were 3,449 new deaths taking the official death toll to 222,408. The true figures are believed to be far higher.

Infections have surged in India since February in a disastrous turn blamed on more contagious variants of the virus as well as government decisions to allow massive crowds to gather for Hindu religious festivals and political rallies before state elections.

Hello and welcome to our continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, with me, Alison Rourke.

India has passed 20m cases, with 357,229 cases recorded in the past 24 hours. Only the US, with 32.4m cases has more recorded infections.

It comes as the Indian PM, Narendra Modi, prepares to speak to Britain’s PM about the escalating coronavirus crisis.

In other developments:

• In the US, the seven-day rolling average of new cases has fallen below 50,000 for the first time since October. The CDC recorded the average as of 2 May as 48,164.
• Air travel in the US has hit its highest mark in more than 13 months ago. Nearly 1.67 million people were screened at US airport checkpoints on Sunday, according to the Transportation Security Administration, the highest number since mid-March of last year.
• The EU will reopen to holidaymakers from countries with low Covid infection rates, such as the UK, and to anyone who has been fully vaccinated, by the start of June under a European Commission plan.
• The US Food and Drug Administration is preparing to authorise the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine for adolescents between ages 12 and 15 years by early next week, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing federal officials familiar with the agency’s plans.
• In Greece, restaurants and cafes reopened their terraces on Monday after six months of shutdown, with customers flocking to soak up the sunshine.
• In Italy, medical experts and politicians expressed concern about a possible spike in infections after tens of thousands of jubilant soccer fans converged on Milan’s main square Sunday to celebrate Inter Milan’s league title.