Displaying items by tag: India

Thursday, 25 March 2021 20:57

Over-50s to book jabs before supplies dip

The NHS said anyone who currently qualifies for their Covid-19 jab (aged over 50 or in at-risk categories) should book their first dose of Covid-19 jabs before 29th March when slots are set to dry up. Officials expect a slowdown in vaccine supplies in April and medics will be focusing on providing second doses. Ministers say the plan to offer a first dose to all adults by July is on track. However NHS England said no first appointments should be booked next month for people under the age of 50 unless they fall into a higher priority group (those who are clinically vulnerable). The reduction in the UK's Covid vaccine supply is partly due to delays in deliveries from India of five million Oxford-AstraZeneca doses. Indian foreign ministry sources said they have placed a temporary hold on all exports of vaccines amid a rising number of domestic cases.

Published in British Isles
Thursday, 28 January 2021 20:19

India: protests over farm laws

Indian farmers have been protesting against farm acts passed by the parliament last September. Their unions have demanded the laws be repealed, and will accept nothing less. The new acts, which exclude guarantees giving farmers a fair price for their produce, are described as ‘anti-farmer laws’ by the unions and opposition politicians. Since September the protests have become more violent. On 26 November a nationwide general strike by 250 million people took place in support of the farmer unions,and on 30 November 300,000 farmers converged in various places from the Punjab to Delhi. On 26 January tens of thousands violently fought the police, overturned vehicles, and hoisted religious flags from the ramparts of Delhi’s Red Fort. See

Published in Worldwide

On 8 January Karnataka state police banned a community of fifty Christians from having worship services indefinitely. They claimed that none of them were Christian by birth and must have been coercively or fraudulently converted to Christianity. They were also accused of collecting government benefits as both Christians and Hindus. Hindu radicals use the state police to clamp down on Christian activities. They have tried social boycotts and physical beatings. However, local Christians remain faithful in the midst of continued harassment.’ One of the biggest threats to Hindu nationalist ideology is the gospel of Jesus Christ, which frees Hindus from the bondage of trying to appease or earn the favour of millions of false gods. If the gospel continues to spread, India cannot become the land of the Hindus. Hindus believe Christians must be treated as enemies. However the constitution states that citizens have the freedom to profess, practice, and propagate the religion of their choice. See also

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 10 December 2020 20:09

India / China: water war

Beijing and New Delhi have long been at loggerheads over a disputed border in the Himalayan mountains (see ) This led to massive skirmishes earlier this year. The two Asian powers are battling it out over water. China will build a hydroelectric project in one of the largest rivers in the world, which Indians call the Brahmaputra River. After Beijing announced its biggest hydropower project in history, New Delhi said that its aggressive plans could have major implications for India's food and water security, and would give China power to use waterways as a ‘weapon.’ Indian officials are now considering a rival water project in the same waters, from Arunachal Pradesh to Bangladesh. Analysts say that things could quickly spiral out of control because the two powers have not honoured a water-sharing agreement, which usually governs plans and discussions surrounding new water projects.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 03 December 2020 20:02

India: fighting malaria

India has made ’impressive gains’ in its fight against malaria. The number of cases and deaths caused by the mosquito-borne disease has seen a marked drop, according to the WHO. From nearly 20 million cases in 2000, there were just 5.6 million in 2019. In the past two years India has reduced cases by 18% and deaths by 20%. Malaria is now limited to some hilly parts of India, with most of the districts able to reduce it to almost nil. While nearly a billion Indians live in malaria-endemic areas, 80% of cases are reported by just 20% of the population living in the forest-fringe, tribal, and foothills hard-to-reach areas of the country. The people in these places have low awareness of disease prevention and access to health care. India’s prime minister has pledged to eradicate malaria by 2030.

Published in Worldwide

A high court in Chhattisgarh state has ordered the district administration of Kondagaon to facilitate the safe return of Christians displaced from three villages after twelve people filed a Public Interest Litigation demanding that security be provided for them. In September the Christians were called to meetings where they were told to recant their Christian faith. When they refused, they were attacked by radical Hindu nationalists and their homes were destroyed. Since the attack, these Christians have remained displaced. ‘We ran for our lives’, said a survivor. ‘The death threats they hurled against us were very frightening. There was no other way than to flee from the village. Our lives are in danger. The villagers have vowed to kill us if we return. Our lives are being badly affected by the dangerous atmosphere created by the villagers.’

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 12 November 2020 20:49

India: pray for Hindus

With over one billion people, Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world. The majority of them have never heard the name of Jesus, and fewer than 2% of Protestant missionaries are serving among them. In India, Hinduism is much more than a religion; it is a way of life and a cultural identity. Acts of violence and intimidation by militant Hindus are on the rise, particularly against Christians. The barriers to the Gospel are many. But prayer opens doors. Join Christians around the world in prayer for Hindus from8 to 22 November. During this time, Hindus will be celebrating one of their most important holidays, the Festival of Lights (Diwali). Despite the candles and fireworks, these millions remain in darkness, separated from the only true source of light - Jesus Christ. Together let us watch and pray.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 05 November 2020 23:24

India: Covid vaccine by February?

An Indian government-backed Covid-19 vaccine could be launched as soon as February, months earlier than expected. Final trials begin this month and studies have so far shown it is safe and effective, said a senior government scientist. Bharat Biotech is the private company developing Covaxin. ‘The vaccine has shown good efficiency’, said senior ICMR scientist Rajni Kant, who is also a member of the Covid-19 task-force.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 17 September 2020 21:58

India: persecution continues

Year after year, Uttar Pradesh is identified as the state where most Christian Indians are persecuted. 86 of the 366 violent attacks on Christians recorded in 2019 took place in Uttar Pradesh, and 2020 has seen little improvement. While the pandemic probably reduced the rate of persecution, recent reports indicate the number of attacks on Christians is increasing as India emerges from lockdown. ‘I would have been killed if God hadn’t been with me,’ Pastor Alok Tomar recently told International Christian Concern. ‘I was worried that I would not survive as the torture was so intense. Different ones took turns as I was beaten with lashes from the police belt.’ Pastor Tomar was telephoned and told to report to the police station immediately. ‘I felt safe because I was going to the police station.’ He was accused of forced religious conversions and kept in custody and tortured for three days by the police. It was another four days before he was given bail.

Published in Worldwide
Thursday, 03 September 2020 09:54

Covid-19 Pandemic Prayer Update – September 2020

As of 2nd September, the total global figure for people infected by Covid-19 stands at 25.7 million according to Johns Hopkins University. In addition to this, the current death statistic stands above 850,000.

Covid-19 hot spots

The US continues to be the country with the most cases and deaths related to Covid-19 globally with the aforementioned figures currently at over 6,000,000 and 180,000 respectively. Although the rate of infection has reduced over recent days and weeks from the high of 77,000 in a day, the daily case numbers are still slightly above those of the peak of the first spike.

After reserving $346 million in funding to purchase 100 million doses of the vaccine in development by the University of Oxford, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has commented that "no one can force anyone to get a vaccine." Brazil, currently heading towards 4 million cases holding the second highest number in the world after the US, has suffered from a steady average of roughly 1,000 deaths per day of people with the virus.

Coronavirus is similarly prevalent elsewhere in the Americas. Peru, Colombia, and Mexico each have over 600,000 cases a piece, whilst Argentina and Chile have more than 400,000 although these numbers may not tell the whole truth as some areas have a significant lack of testing. For example, Mexico has a test rate of just 10,000 tests per 1 million population compared to Spain where there are fewer cases and a test rate of nearly 200,000 tests per 1 million per population. Another issue infecting Latin America is misinformation related to coronavirus cures and preventative treatments. These home remedies spread on social media by influential figures, such as the use of industrial bleach, are unproven and potential harmful self-medications.

India is currently experiencing the highest rate of new coronavirus cases per day reaching its own 24-hour high of 85 thousand on 26th August. Over the month of August, the country amassed nearly 2 million cases; the most reported in a month for any country in the world since the pandemic began. Despite these record statistics, the government continues to lift restrictions in an attempt to boost the economy after lockdown in March saw millions of jobs lost.

Large areas of Europe have managed to dramatically reduce the prevalence of coronavirus, although they have not managed to completely eradicate it. Spain and France are experiencing new outbreaks with regional lockdowns in place to attempt to cut off the spread. Ukraine has seen continued increases in case numbers after failing to minimise the virus after its first peak and the likes of Germany and the UK are observing gentle increases in daily new cases up to around 1,200.

It is still not well known how severe the situation is in Africa since there is a major lack in testing. The International Rescue Committee have said that they fear the continent is “fighting the epidemic in the dark” with limited data to work from hampering their response to the pandemic. South Africa continues to hold the most cases with around 630,000, followed by Egypt with 100,000 but the dramatic positive test result difference of 17% compared to 73% respectively hints at the reality on the continent. Other countries around the world struggling to contain the virus include Indonesia, the Philippines, and Israel, where the numbers of new cases and deaths remain high.

Has the curve flattened?

In some countries around the world where good social distancing has been practised, masks worn where necessary, efficient testing and quarantining has taken place, and test-and-trace systems have been implemented, the rate of infection has been shown to fall, and in some places, reduce to 0. This has been fully enacted by small countries and island nations and has seen positive results from larger countries such as Vietnam, Taiwan, and Iceland where the virus was once prominent.

In other countries, there has been impatience during lockdown, not waiting long enough for case rates to fall before reopening. This prevents a reduced rate of transmission, which doesn’t work towards the eradication of the virus. Through further restlessness and more easing of lockdown restrictions, the rate of transmission has increased again producing a so-called ‘second spike’ as shown by the recent dramatic increase in cases in the US or Israel.

The efforts that have been put in place by countries all over the world have reduced the impacts of the virus, though. Without the measures such as travel restrictions to and from zones with high case rates and social distancing designed to reduce transmission, the new numbers of cases would likely not have dropped, and the death toll would have been much higher by now.

Vaccine update

Over 165 vaccines are currently being developed by teams all over the world in the race to find a solution to the pandemic. 36 of these are currently in human trials, and at least 90 are in animal trials, to prove that they work as intended and are safe for wide-spread use.

A vaccine produced by the University of Oxford has been shown to trigger an immune response creating neutralising antibodies and T-cells in the recipient after a single dose in 90% of participants, although not without possible side-effects such as fever and headaches. Larger trials are taking place in countries such as Brazil where exposure to Covid-19 is high to ensure the vaccine is safe and effective, and then 47,000 volunteers from around the world will take part in “challenge trials” where they will be deliberately infected with coronavirus to observe the vaccine’s response.

Over 150 countries have pooled efforts and resources to set up the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, otherwise known as COVAX. The benefits of this are that all member parties can take advantage of successful vaccines produced from their collective library so that everyone will have access to a working product in the shortest time frame possible. In the event that a country’s own vaccine plans fall through, they will have a backup option in COVAX.

The U.S. has announced it has no plans to participate in the rest of the world’s co-operative effort and instead intends to work on its own to find a solution so that they “will not be constrained by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China," said Judd Deere, spokesman for the White House. If the nation’s own vaccine proves to be unsafe or ineffective, they will be vulnerable to an extended period of infection and unnecessary deaths. This comes after President Trump withdrew the country from the World Health Organisation claiming they "failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms" and also accusing China of receiving favourable treatment to cover up the virus’ origin.

Let’s Pray…
Let us continue to declare that the novel coronavirus is defeated by the blood of Jesus.

We pray for divine intervention and for God's name to be glorified even as each nation and government tries its best to flatten the curve and finally arrest this epidemic. 

We release wisdom, skill, and integrity upon our leaders. 

We pray for protection, wisdom and strength, for those working to bring treatment and comfort to the sick and their families.

We pray special grace and help for the vulnerable population and nations. We pray for refugees and displaced peoples. We pray against domestic violence and other crimes that have become rampant during lockdowns.

We pray for a safe, effective, and affordable vaccine to be released soonest but without including aborted baby cells in its creation or neglecting proper testing protocols.

We continue to release faith, hope, and love over the peoples of the world. May the Church seize this opportune time to manifest Jesus our Lord and Savior to those who are seeking answers and peace.

Pray: Lord God, the One who has Almighty power, we agree according to your promise in Matthew 18:18-20 that this virus will be stopped in its tracks. That the medical researchers will get a download from Heaven on how to quickly develop a vaccine to counteract COVID-19 and a cure for those who have become infected.

We also agree in prayer, asking that the Body of Christ worldwide will rise up in love and boldness, trusting in your blood to cover and protect us and throwing off fear, so that we can be available to serve, bless, and bear witness to those around us who are terrified and depressed at being infected.

Let us seize this unprecedented opportunity to make you known to those without hope in Christ!

Thank you for your promise that surely, you will be with us "always, even to the very end of the age” so that we can carry on with the mission you have given us for our world (Matthew 28:20).

Join in Online Prayers:

World Prayer Centre, Birmingham, UK – Virtual House of Prayer

iHop Kansas Prayer Room

247 Prayer Coronavirus Prayer Room 

Additional Prayer Resources for Coronavirus

God and the Pandemic – Tom Wright
Beyond the Pandemic - Rev Dr Clifford Hill
A coronavirus prayer from Pete Greig

19 Things to Do in response to Coronavirus

Prophecy Today UK’s Responses to Coronavirus

PrayerCast Video and Prayer Briefing
CSM Nigeria Article

Lausanne Resources
Operation World EBook on the impact on Mission

WW11 Veteran Gets 180k Praying

On a lighter note… 50 countries affected by Covid 19 sing Amazing Grace in this video

Reporting from John Hopkins University: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality

Further data on Europe and the world: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/geographical-distribution-2019-ncov-cases