While India is the world’s biggest vaccine maker,it is struggling to produce enough doses. Its two current vaccine producers will take two months or more to boost monthly output to more than 110 million doses from 70 million to 80 million.

At a meeting with his top officials on Thursday,Modi stressed that Indian states must keep up vaccination rates and that healthcare workers involved in the inoculation campaign must not be diverted to other tasks,the government said.

Although the country has administered at least 157 million vaccine doses,its rate of inoculation has fallen sharply in recent days.

Modi has been widely criticised for not acting sooner to suppress the second wave,after religious festivals and political rallies drew tens of thousands of people in recent weeks and became “super spreader” events.

Several Indian states have imposed various levels of social restrictions to try to stem infections,but the federal government has resisted imposing a national lockdown.

The southern state of Kerala announced on Thursday it will impose nine days of curbs on movement from Saturday.

In the office of a Hindu crematorium in Delhi,the floor and shelves were overflowing with earthen pots,plastic packets and steel containers filled with the ashes of people who have died from COVID-19.

Practising Hindus collect the ashes of the dead a few days after the funeral for immersion in a river or sea,one of the rituals that they believe lead to salvation of the soul.

“Our lockers are full. We cannot store any more ashes. We used to get around 40 COVID-19 bodies a day. We are now telling relatives to take the ashes with them on the same day,” Pankaj Sharma,a manager at the crematorium,told Reuters.

With Delhi running short of ambulances,authorities have teamed up with a non-profit organisation to turn some of the city’s ubiquitous three-wheeled auto-rickshaws into makeshift ambulances for COVID-19 patients.

Reuters