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NEW DELHI (AFP) – Commuters showed signs of victory as India restarted the city’s metro services on Monday (September 7) after a hiatus of nearly six months, determined to live with the new normal even as the great nation surpassed Brazil as the second worst coronavirus. -country affected.
The masked commuters sat in mostly empty carriages as journalists scrambled to take pictures at metro stations in the capital New Delhi, one of the worst-hit cities, along with the financial center Mumbai.
Passengers had to leave empty seats between them and could enter the carriages only after undergoing a temperature check.
“In order for our lives to go on, we have to get out of our homes … so this is a good move by the government to get the subway trains running,” said passenger Deepak Kumar.
“Social distancing is being followed and … people are using masks and disinfectants,” he told AFP.
The resumption of subway services came as the South Asian nation recorded 4.2 million infections since the pandemic began, data from the Health Ministry showed.
It surpassed Brazil’s total, making it the second highest figure behind the 6.25 million in the United States.
India has also recorded 71,642 deaths, down from 126,203 in Brazil and 188,540 in the United States.
Since August, the country of 1.3 billion people, home to some of the most densely populated cities in the world, has been reporting the world’s largest single-day increases.
On Monday it reported an increase of more than 90,000 cases.
‘NEW NORMAL’
Its case load had surpassed four million by Saturday, just 13 days after hitting three million.
The reopening of the metro is part of a government effort to gradually restart economic activity after the strict blockade imposed since late March caused growth to contract by a record 23.9 percent between April and June.
The commuters ignored the restrictions imposed by the metro authorities.
Only one line was operational, for four hours in the morning and four in the afternoon, while the trains had to be fully disinfected after each trip.
“It’s the new normal, and I suppose we all have to take that responsibility,” said Rashi Bhargave aboard a train in Delhi.
The metro carried 2.7 million passengers a day before the epidemic around the 400-kilometer (250-mile) network.
The city of 20 million people registered some 3,256 new infections on Sunday, its highest peak in a single day in 73 days. It was also the first time that cases crossed the 3,000 mark during this period.
Virologist Shahid Jameel, who heads the Wellcome Trust / DBT India Alliance, said the key factor to consider is the growth rate of infections, which he called “quite alarming.”
“In the last two weeks, the … average has gone from about 65,000 cases per day to about 83,000 cases per day, that is, an increase of 27 percent in two weeks or about two percent per day,” he said. Jameel to AFP.
India has been testing more than 10 million people a day on average, with plans to increase it even more.
The Indian Council of Medical Research, the scientific agency leading the government’s response, revised the testing criteria on Friday, allowing anyone to get tested without a doctor’s letter.
Jameel said the move was late.
“This will reveal more asymptomatic people, who are the true source of this expansion in India. There should also be more testing in rural districts and villages, as more than two-thirds of the cases come from there,” he said.
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