Sat 13 June 2020:
India’s number of confirmed cases is behind only the U.S., Brazil and Russia. The global surge in coronavirus cases is derailing efforts by governments to reopen economies and ease lockdown restrictions. In South Asia, new cases have surged in Pakistan since the government lifted lockdowns on May 9 citing economic pressure.
The government is reporting almost 10,000 new confirmed cases every day with infections now totaling almost 300,000, including 8,500 deaths. Coronavirus fatalities in New Delhi, however, are almost twice as high as official figures show, a city leader said. Citing data from the city’s busy crematoriums and cemeteries, he said Thursday that just over 2,000 people have died from the virus across the city, almost twice the official toll.
Despite the surge in cases nationally, which is being mirrored elsewhere in South Asia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has declared the lockdown a success and has been steadily lifting restrictions.
India’s two-month lockdown kept transmission low but in a large population of 1.3 billion, people remain susceptible and the campaign against the virus is likely to go on for months, Balram Bhargava, director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research, said.
The lockdown was imposed nationwide late March but has eased since, and it is now largely being enforced in high-risk areas. The spiking caseload came after India allowed the reopening of shops, shopping malls, manufacturing and religious places. Subways, schools, colleges and movie halls, however, remain shuttered nationwide.
Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai are the worst-hit cities in the country, and Bhargava said urban residents have a greater chance of contracting the virus. Financial capital Mumbai is officially India’s worst-affected city with almost 2,000 fatalities. Parts of the Dharavi area in Mumbai, one of Asia’s largest slums, have been under strict monthslong lockdown.
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