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MUMBAI (Reuters) – India displaced Brazil on Monday to rank second after the United States in terms of coronavirus infections, with 90,082 new cases expected to rise, while some cities reopened subway services closed during months.
With its national count of 4.2 million surpassed only by the US figure of 6.2 million, India is adding more cases every day than any other country this year since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Experts say there are no signs of a spike as cases rise in the world’s second-most populous country, both in major cities such as New Delhi and the financial center of Mumbai, and in rural areas that have limited access to health services.
“It is becoming a double burden now,” Rajib Dasgupta, a professor of community health at Jawaharlal Nehru University in the capital, told Reuters.
“Urban areas are not slowing down and rural areas are recovering.”
Monday’s jump was the third consecutive daily record in India, government data showed, tentatively pushing its count beyond Brazil, which has just over 4.1 million cases, though the time difference means the South American nation will give know its corresponding figure later.
The death toll of 71,642 in India compares with nearly 193,000 in the United States and 126,000 in Brazil.
India says its rising infections also reflect higher rates of testing across the country, adding that the high recovery rates show that its testing, tracking and treating strategy is working and the situation is under control in a country its size. .
Commuters were rare as New Delhi resumed metro rail services after a break of more than five months, with stations nearly deserted. The bars will open from Wednesday in the capital.
Partial subway train services were also opened in the western city of Ahmedabad, the northern city of Lucknow and several other locations, after nearly six months of suspension by the pandemic.
Pressure is mounting for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to bring the economy out of a deep freeze after a severe lockdown in March shuttered businesses, leaving millions out of work, causing a 24% contraction in GDP in the quarter of June.
(Interactive graphical tracking of the global spread of the coronavirus: open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser).
(Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Sachin Ravikumar; Edited by Clarence Fernandez)
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