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“I woke up feeling that toxic garbage was stuck in my windpipe,” Delhibon Rahul Ojha writes in a tweet addressed to the government and local authorities.
High levels of PM2.5 can cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including lung cancer. Now concerns are growing about how the suffocating air could hit Delhibas during the corona pandemic. So far, more than 400,000 people have been confirmed to be infected with the virus in the city.
“The whole sky is covered in smoke and that is why the situation with the coronavirus is getting worse,” Delhi Prime Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a video posted on Twitter.
Worst levels in a year
According to the AQI air index, which measures all types of air pollution, Thursday’s levels were the worst since November 2019.
Delhi’s air generally deteriorates in October and November due to increased coal power, windless weather, and farmers burning fields. This year, the difference is stark, after a temporary respite during this summer’s pandemic-related shutdown that in part gave the Delhiba a breather from exhaust gases and industrial emissions.
