A seven-day rolling average of vaccinations in India showed an alarming decline for the seventh day on Thursday, as the Health Ministry said only 11.66 lakh people got their jabs a day ago, mounting concern about next waves of infections. The government has asked all states to declare Mucormycosis or "Black Fungus" an epidemic. A letter from the Health Ministry asks states to list under the "Epidemic Diseases Act" the rare but potentially fatal infection. Weathering many a storm, Pinarayi Vijayan steered the Left ship to safe waters in the 2021 assembly elections with a thumping win and rewrote Kerala's political history of voters swinging between the Congress and Communists once in five years. Breaking the four-decade old trend of Keralites choosing between the rival fronts every five years, the 77-year-old has also affirmed his grip on the party, virtually becoming its face, something new in the Left scheme of things.
