Prime Minister Boris Johnson has cancelled his scheduled visit to India next week “in light of the current coronavirus situation”, Downing Street said.
Downing Street issued a joint statement from the British and Indian governments.
“In the light of the current coronavirus situation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not be able to travel to India next week,” the statement said.
“Instead, Prime Ministers Modi and Johnson will speak later this month to agree and launch their ambitious plans for the future partnership between the UK and India. They will remain in regular contact beyond this, and look forward to meeting in person later this year.”
New Delhi is being put under a week-long lockdown from Monday night as an explosive surge in coronavirus cases pushed the Indian capital’s health system to its limit.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a news conference the capital was facing shortages of oxygen and medicine.
“I do not say that the system has collapsed, but it has reached its limits,” Mr Kejriwal said, adding that harsh measures were necessary to “prevent a collapse of the health system”.
According to India’s health ministry, Delhi reported 25,462 cases and 161 deaths in the past 24 hours.
India overall reported 273,810 new infections on Monday, its highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic and has now reported more than 15 million infections, a total second only to the United States.
The health ministry also reported 1,619 deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, pushing the toll to more than 178,769.
India has the fourth highest number of deaths after the US, Brazil and Mexico – though, with nearly 1.4 billion people, it has a much larger population than any of those countries.
The soaring cases and deaths come just months after India thought it had seen the worst of the pandemic, but experts say even these figures are likely an undercount.
Similar virus curbs have already have been imposed in the worst-hit state of Maharashtra, home to India’s financial capital, Mumbai.
