The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Arab Emirates is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The first confirmed case in the United Arab Emirates was announced on 29 January 2020. It was the first country in the Middle East to report a confirmed case.
The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. As of 20 May 2023, according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest number of confirmed cases in the world with 44,983,152 reported cases of COVID-19 infection and the third-highest number of COVID-19 deaths at 531,794 deaths. In October 2021, the World Health Organization estimated 4.7 million excess deaths, both directly and indirectly related to COVID-19 to have taken place in India.
The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in Kerala was confirmed in Thrissur on 30 January 2020. As of 5 April 2022, there have been 65,34,352 confirmed cases, test positivity rate is at 2.04%, with 64,62,811 (98.91%) recoveries and 68,197 (1.04%) deaths in the state.
COVID-19 Pandemic spread to Uttar Pradesh in March 2020. While the World Health Organization praised the UP government for its contact tracing efforts, there were several other issues in its management of the pandemic, including under reportage of cases by the government, vaccine shortages and dismal conditions of COVID-19 hospitals.
The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Indian capital of Delhi was reported on 2 March 2020. Delhi has the seventh-highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in India. The total number of cases reported as of Apr 2022, is 1,867,572 consisting of 26,158 deaths and 1,840,342 who have recovered.
The first four cases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh were confirmed on March 20, 2020. As of August 14, 2021, Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 791,998 cases, and has recorded 10,514 deaths.
During a time of social distance and limited contact with others, social media became an important place to interact during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media platforms helped the world remain connected, largely increasing in usage. Individuals isolated at home turned to social media to maintain their relationships and to access entertainment to pass the time.
The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in India has been largely disruptive. India's growth in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2020 went down to 3.1% according to the Ministry of Statistics. The Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India said that this drop is mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic effect on the Indian economy. Notably, India had also been witnessing a pre-pandemic slowdown, and according to the World Bank, the current pandemic has "magnified pre-existing risks to India's economic outlook".
On the evening of 24 March 2020, the Government of India ordered a nationwide lockdown for 21 days, limiting the movement of the entire 1.38 billion population of India as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 pandemic in India. It was ordered after a 14-hour voluntary public curfew on 22 March, followed by enforcement of a series of regulations in the countries COVID-19 affected regions. The lockdown was placed when the number of confirmed positive coronavirus cases in India was approximately 500. Upon its announcement, a mass movement of people across the country was described as the largest since the partition of India in 1947. Observers stated that the lockdown had slowed the growth rate of the pandemic by 6 April to a rate of doubling every six days, and by 18 April, to a rate of doubling every eight days. As the end of the first lockdown period approached, state governments and other advisory committees recommended extending the lockdown. The governments of Odisha and Punjab extended the state lockdowns to 1 May. Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, and Telangana followed suit. On 14 April, Prime minister Narendra Modi extended the nationwide lockdown until 3 May, on the written recommendation of governors and lieutenant governors of all the states, with conditional relaxations after 20 April for the regions where the spread had been contained or was minimal.
Countries and territories in South Asia have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The first South Asian country to report a confirmed case was Nepal, which documented its first case on 23 January 2020, in a man who had returned from Wuhan on 9 January. As of 2 July, at least one case of COVID-19 has been reported in every country in South Asia. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Maldives have implemented lockdowns, Sri Lanka has responded with quarantine curfews while India and Nepal have declared a country-wide lockdown. Countries have also instituted various levels of restrictions on international travel, some countries have completely sealed off their land borders and grounded most international flights.
The Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund was created on 27 March 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Although it is named for the Prime Minister of India, and uses the State Emblem of India, it is a private fund, used at the discretion of the Prime Minister and the Fund's trustees, and does not form a part of the Government of India's accounts. The Fund was established for the purpose of redressing the Covid-19 pandemic in India, in 2020. While complete documentation for the Fund's establishment has not been made public, the Government of India has stated that the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, is the chairman of the fund, and that trustees include the Minister of Defence, Rajnath Singh; the Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah, the Minister of Finance, Nirmala Sitharaman, and several corporate leaders and industrialists, including Ratan Tata, and Sudha Murty.
Aarogya Setu is an Indian COVID-19 "contact tracing, syndromic mapping and self-assessment" digital service, primarily a mobile app, developed by the National Informatics Centre under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The app reached more than 100 million installs in 40 days. On 26 May, amid growing privacy and security concerns, the source code of the app was made public.
The first COVID-19 case in the Indian state of Bihar was reported in Munger on 22 March 2020, a 38-year-old tested positive for COVID-19, he was also the first victim. He had travel history to Qatar. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has confirmed a total of 62,031 cases as of 4 August 2020, including 20,922 active cases, 349 deaths and 40,760 recoveries. The virus has spread in 38 districts of the state, of which Patna district has the highest number of cases.
The first responses of the government of India to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country involved thermal screenings of passengers arriving from China, the country from which the coronavirus disease 2019 originated, as well as of passengers arriving from other countries. As the pandemic spread worldwide, the Indian government recommended social distancing measures and also initiated travel and entry restrictions. Throughout March 2020, several shutdowns and business closures were initiated, and by the end of the month, the Indian government ordered a widespread lockdown. An economic package was announced in May 2020.
Vaccine diplomacy, a form of medical diplomacy, is the use of vaccines to improve a country's diplomatic relationship and influence of other countries. Meanwhile, vaccine diplomacy also "means a set of diplomatic measures taken to ensure access to the best practices in the development of potential vaccines, to enhance bilateral and/or multilateral cooperation between countries in conducting joint R&D, and, in the case of the announcement of production, to ensure the signing of a contract for the purchase of the vaccine at the shortest term." Although primary discussed in the context of the supply of COVID-19 vaccines, it also played a part in the distribution of the smallpox vaccine.
India began administration of COVID-19 vaccines on 16 January 2021. As of 4 March 2023, India has administered over 2.2 billion doses overall, including first, second and precautionary (booster) doses of the currently approved vaccines. In India, 95% of the eligible population (12+) has received at least one shot, and 88% of the eligible population (12+) is fully vaccinated.
COVID-19 vaccination in South Africa is an ongoing immunisation campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in response to the ongoing pandemic in the country.
Vaccine Maitri is a humanitarian initiative undertaken by the Indian government to provide COVID-19 vaccines to countries around the world. The government started providing vaccines from 20 January 2021. As of 21 February 2022, India had delivered around 16.29 crore doses of vaccines to 96 countries. Of these, 1.43 cror doses were gifted to 98 countries by the Government of India. The remaining 10.71 crore were supplied by the vaccine producers under its commercial and 4.15 crore were supplied by COVAX obligations. In late March 2021, the Government of India temporarily froze exports of the Covishield, citing India's own COVID crisis and the domestic need for these vaccines. The Health Minister of India, Mansukh Mandaviya announced in September that India will resume the export of vaccines from October to the rest of the world.
Tika Utsav was a four day mass vaccination programme for COVID-19 from April 11, 2021 to April 14, 2021 announced by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi in view of the resurgence in the COVID-19 cases in the country with the aim to vaccinate maximum eligible people. Modi in Letter to the Nation said that it is beginning of second major war against COVID-19 Pandemic. The Mass vaccination Programme has started on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and continued till the birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar on April 14.
The following is the timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in India from January 2021 to the May 2021. The complexity of the COVID-19 data reporting in India has been scrutinized extensively because of the disagreement between the undocumented morbidity rate and the low rates of case fatality in comparison to other countries.
