Amazon Prime Day Sale Paused in India Due to Surging COVID-19 Cases

Amazon Prime Day sale has been paused in India, a company spokesperson confirmed to Gadgets 360 on Friday, as the country battles a severe second wave of coronavirus infections that has left thousands dead.

In the past week, India has reported 1.5 million new infections and record daily death tolls as its hospitals run out of beds and medical oxygen.

Amazon, Google, and several Indian firms have jumped in to help the world's second biggest population battle coronavirus by pitching in with everything from airlifts of medical equipment and funding pledges to making medical oxygen.

Amazon's plans to pause its Prime Day event in India was first reported by CNBC early on Friday.

The annual event, offered only to Prime members by Amazon, is typically held in July to boost sales.

The discounts are a key way Amazon markets Prime, a fast-shipping and media-streaming service that incentivises subscribers to do more shopping on Amazon.

Smartphone maker Realme has also decided to postpone its upcoming launches due to the current second wave of COVID-19 cases sweeping across the country. It was scheduled to host a launch event on May 4 to unveil a new flagship phone powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC. This was largely anticipated to be called Realme X7 Max, a rebranded model of the Realme GT Neo that was launched in China earlier. Realme was also looking to launch a new Realme TV, presumably the Realme TV 4K 43-inch model at the launch event.

In a fresh tweet, Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth has confirmed that the company is postponing upcoming launches and anniversary celebrations as India battles unprecedented challenges. The tweet reads, “After careful consideration, Realme has decided to postpone the upcoming smartphone and AIoT products' launch along with anniversary celebrations. In these difficult times, let's focus on contributing as much as possible. Stay home, Stay strong! We will be back soon.”