Live Updates: US Pledges to Help Delhi as India Records Almost 350,000 New COVID-19 Cases

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Dutch ministry in charge of aviation said Sunday that flights from India would be banned until at least May 1 amid concerns about a new coronavirus variant.

"A flight ban will take effect for passenger flights from India at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 26... The flight ban will be in place until at least 00:01 a.m. on May 1," a statement read.

Cargo flights and planes carrying medical personnel and equipment will be exempted.

The flight ban comes on top of an entry ban for non-EU residents. The cabinet decided to double up on it for fear that the Netherlands could become a preferred port of entry for Indians going to the EU.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Bangladesh will close the land border with India for two weeks starting Monday to avoid a coronavirus spillover, the Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

"From 6am of 26 April 2021 to 6pm of 9 May 2021, general movements of humans between Bangladesh and India will temporarily stay suspended through the land ports," a statement read.

Bangladeshi citizens going to India for treatment will be allowed back in through designated border crossings if they present a negative COVID-19 test.

India has this week reported its highest numbers of new daily cases and deaths since the pandemic began and is facing severe shortages of oxygen. It has been promised aid by allies and neighbors.

Police in northern Germany said Sunday that they were probing a medical worker at a Red Cross immunisation centre for replacing coronavirus vaccine with saline solution.

"The woman was tasked with preparing syringes for vaccination and replaced the vaccine that she dropped with saline solution in six cases", a press statement read.

The woman explained that she did not want to inform her superiors about the wasted Pfizer vaccine. She later confessed her action to a colleague, who informed the authorities.

Sven Ambrosy, the top official in the Friesland district, said that he was shocked by the findings and had ordered two people to be present during any manipulation involving vaccines.

The woman faces a charge of inflicting bodily harm, the police said, despite saline solution posing no health risk.

Some 200 people received a shot around the time of the swap. The authorities have set up a hotline and plan to test them for antibodies to determine who was not immunised.

India comes second in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, with almost 17 million, following the United States with more than 32 million cases. The Indian COVID-19 toll has been increasing rapidly since mid-February, setting daily records in new cases incessantly.

The chancellor expressed her sympathy to the people of India on the "terrible suffering that #Covid19 has again brought over your communities."

India has logged nearly 17 million coronavirus cases, second only to the United States. The number of active cases rose by record 349,691 in the past 24 hours, with 2,767 people dying from the virus. Hospitals in worst-hit states are running low on oxygen and beds.

The total number of those who tested positive for the coronavirus in India has neared 17 million, making it the second country to the United States in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Over the past several days, India has been registering record daily coronavirus incidence and mortality rates.

Earlier this week, a number of countries, including Germany, Iran and Canada, announced temporary limitations on the passenger traffic with India after a new variant of the coronavirus with triple mutation — variant B.1.618 — had been discovered in the West Bengal state. Indian scientists believe that the new variant transmits faster than any previously known ones and infects old and young alike.

"I will support the use of Sputnik [V] in the Czech Republic if the republic suffers a shortage of other [vaccines], including those vaccines that are already in use", Milos Zeman said in an interview with CNN Prima News.

"Over the past day, 8,780 coronavirus cases were confirmed across 83 Russian regions, including 1,168 cases (13.3 percent) without clinical symptoms", the coronavirus response centre said.