MILLIONS RUSHED TO SHELTER AS CYCLONE YAAS HITS INDIA

With winds of up to 165 kilometres per hour, cyclone Yaas is to hit India today. According to the India Meteorological Department, the cyclone will slam into the West Bengal and Odisha states.

EWN reports that nearly two million people along India's east coast have been moved to shelters, officials said Tuesday, and the storm has also disrupted efforts to combat the country's devastating COVID-19 outbreak.

Special relief commissioner of The state of West Bengal, Pradeep Jena, said arrangements were being made to maintain social distancing in shelters, with face masks and sanitisers supplied.

India has seen one of the worst outbreaks of COVID-19, with the third wave hitting the country hard. An infection rate of over 300,000 new positive cases was reported at one stage. New reports have suggested that that rate has now dropped to just over 90,000 new cases per day.

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