India’s worsening Covid crisis could spiral into a problem for the world

India’s worsening Covid crisis could spiral into a problem for the world

India's Covid-19 cases spiked in April to daily record highs, and experts warn the country's worsening health crisis could scuttle efforts to end the global pandemic.The South Asian country — home to around 1.4 billion people or 18% of the world's population — accounted for 46% of new Covid cases globally, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. One in every four deaths in the past week came from India, the UN health agency said.India has reported more than 300,000 new cases daily in the last two weeks, and overtook Brazil in April to become the second-worst infected country in the world. Cumulatively, coronavirus infections in India reached around 20.67 million with more than 226,000 deaths, according to health ministry data on Wednesday. Several studies of India's data, however, found that cases were likely severely underreported.

There are already signs that India's outbreak is spilling over to other countries. Its neighbors Nepal and Sri Lanka have also reported increases in infections, while other regional economies including Hong Kong and Singapore have seen imported Covid cases from India.Here's how India's coronavirus crisis could spiral into a wider global problem.

Potential new Covid variants

Prolonged large outbreaks in any country could increase the possibility of new