At least four people have been killed by torrential rains and high winds in India, where tens of thousands of people are being evacuated due to the arrival of a powerful cyclone, authorities said on Sunday.
Read also: China: two tornadoes kill at least 12 in the cities of Wuhan and Suzhou
Cyclone Tauktae - India's first major tropical storm of the season - is moving north parallel to the country's west coast, causing heavy rains, thunderstorms and high winds in several Indian states, the weather service said.
The cyclone is expected to make landfall in the state of Gujarat (west) on Monday evening, with winds of 150 to 160 km / h, according to the same source.
Four people died on Saturday due to torrential rains and strong winds hitting the south-western state of Karnataka, according to the emergency management agency.
Several villages and small towns have been flooded and properties damaged, authorities said.
Two more people have died and 23 fishermen are missing in neighboring Kerala state, local media reported.
Some 75,000 people are ready to be evacuated from coastal areas of Gujarat, where the Covid-19 vaccination campaign will be suspended Monday and Tuesday, officials told AFP. Hospitals receiving coronavirus patients were setting up emergency power systems, said local development official Varunkumar Baranwal. State hospitals will be continuously supplied with oxygen and electricity, and hundreds of Covid patients will be evacuated from field hospitals.
India is facing a deadly epidemic wave that has pushed its healthcare system to the point of breaking down and runs out of hospital beds, oxygen and medicine. The huge country of 1.3 billion people recorded more than 311,170 new infections on Sunday, bringing the official total of people infected to 24.7 million. The death toll exceeds 270,000, with 4,077 new deaths recorded in the past 24 hours. Experts consider these balance sheets largely undervalued. In May 2020, more than 110 people were killed when "super cyclone" Amphan ravaged eastern India and Bangladesh, razing villages, destroying farms and leaving millions of people without electricity.