Coronavirus cases in India increase more than a million

NEW DELHI – India reached a milestone on Friday morning who had made great sacrifices to avoid: registering over a million coronavirus infections.

The virus has been making its way in this country of 1.3 billion people and picking up speed, fueled by high population density, an already besieged healthcare system, and a central government calculation to lift a national blockade in hopes of pushing forward the economy and running, whatever happens.

But as the number of new confirmed infections in India continues to reach record levels, many states and cities have been closing again. In some areas, long lines of bodies emerge from the cremation fields. India is accumulating around 30,000 new reported infections every day, more than any other country except the United States and Brazil, and is catching up with Brazil.

India now has the third highest total of cases – 1,003,832 cases and 25,602 deaths – after the United States and Brazil. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology estimate that by the end of next year, India will be the most affected country in the world.

“We have paid a price for laxity” said K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Indian Public Health Foundation, a nonprofit organization of academic and public health experts.

Close to 25,000 deaths have been officially attributed to Covid-19, but evidence remains sparse, so the actual number could be significantly higher.

Schools and universities have been closed since March with no clear plans to reopen, leaving nearly 278 million students with little to do.

More than 100 million Indians have lost their jobs. The economy, which had already been showing deep cracks before the pandemic, is forecast to contract as much as 9.5 percent in the year beginning April 1, a surprising change from the last decade, when India was a one of the most promising. business environments on earth.

In the early days of the pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took swift action. He advised masks and social distancing. At a time when India had less than 1,000 known infections, although the actual number was certainly higher, it imposed a severe national blockade that would last almost three months.

Millions of migrant workers, who over the years had come to work in cities, suddenly found themselves with little or no work. They left the cities and returned to the countryside, hoping to depend on relatives in their home villages to survive. In the process, they spread coronavirus infections in almost every corner of India.

As the economic pain really started to bite, Modi changed course. Last month he urged the leaders of the 28 states and 8 territories of India to “unlock, unlock, unlock.”

Public health experts say Modi pushed him back and that he should have waited until the crisis had advanced and then imposed a strict shutdown.

The early shutdown was “premature and did nothing” because the virus had not spread at the time, said Dr. Anand Krishnan, a professor of epidemiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, based in New Delhi. “Now is the time to impose such drastic public health measures.”

The worst affected areas are the largest cities in India, such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad and the Bangalore Technology Center. Crowded urban areas, where many families live, eight or even ten people per room, make social distancing almost impossible, accelerating the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus.

Officials in northeast India’s Bihar state imposed a two-week blockade starting Thursday after a sudden surge in cases, more than 20,000 in 24 hours. Bihar is a source of migrant labor throughout India; The increase in Bihar cases is correlated with the return of workers from distant cities.

A sharp rise in cases has also forced a new confinement in Goa, a state on the west coast of India that is famous for its beaches, just a few weeks after it reopened to tourists, a lifesaver for the state economy.

The southern state of Kerala, which had been highly successful in controlling the spread of the virus, also extended the blocking restrictions for a week in its largest city, Thiruvananthapuram, after cases nearly doubled in just a few days. .

“We need to focus more on the new COVID-19 hot spot in South Asia,” said a statement by John Fleming, an official with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. “The lives of people in India are no less valuable than those of other parts of the world.”

Modi and senior government officials have repeatedly said in televised speeches that India is doing better than the wealthier countries, especially when it comes to the death rate. India has reported 20 coronavirus-related deaths per million people, while many other nations, including the United States, Brazil, Spain and Italy, have lost hundreds per million.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with how the government has handled the pandemic,” said Dr. Krishnan. Instead, he said, it is because India’s average age is younger than that of other countries, and obesity and diabetes, which increase people’s vulnerability to the virus, are less prevalent here.

The Indian Medical Association said that Covid-19 has killed 99 doctors.

“If Covid’s mortality has to be reduced, it has to start with the doctors,” the organization said in a press release on Wednesday.

Public health experts say India still lacks a robust and transparent mechanism to respond to a crisis of this magnitude. And what is needed, they say, is a vigorous and energetic response from both the government and citizens.

“Opening shopping malls and allowing large religious gatherings is not the way,” said Reddy. “You can’t give the virus a road to travel.”