Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. India: More than 401,000 New COVID Cases in 24 Hours VOA News India's health ministry Saturday reported more than 401,000 new COVID infections and nearly 4,200 deaths in the previous 24-hour period. Public health experts believe the staggering statistics in India are likely higher and the surge of cases may not reach its peak until the end of May. India's main opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a letter Friday to implement a national lockdown, accelerate the vaccination campaign and increase tracking of the virus and its mutations. "Allowing the uncontrollable spread of the virus in our country will be devastating not only for our people but also for the rest of the world," Gandhi said. Britain has declared a COVID variant from India as a "variant of concern." Pope Francis said that he supports the temporary suspension of vaccine patents, according to news reports. He added that market forces, as it relates to the vaccines, must not predominate. The World Health Organization Friday approved a COVID-19 vaccine developed in China for emergency use worldwide. The vaccine, from China's state-owned drugmaker, Sinopharm, is the first vaccine manufactured by a non-Western country to be endorsed by WHO. Friday's move was also the first time the global public health group granted emergency approval to a Chinese vaccine for an infectious disease. The Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine has already been administered to hundreds of millions of people in China and in other parts of the world, along with a second Chinese vaccine. WHO's decision allows the Sinopharm vaccine to be included in the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, or COVAX, an initiative to distribute vaccines to mainly low-income countries. WHO has said it could decide on China's second main vaccine, made by Sinovac Biotech, as early as next week.