On a train leaving for the province of Chhattisgarh, India. – Shaukat Ahmed / PACIFIC PRE
L’in has exceeded 500,000 cases of
coronavirus, the government announced on Saturday with a record 18,500 in one day. The country counts a total of 15,685 deaths due to Covid-19, and according to epidemiologists, the pandemic has not yet reached its peak, expected in several weeks, with probably the milestone of a million cases exceeded in July.
If India is in a phase of exit from containment, some States are thinking of reimposing it. The coronavirus circulates in a disturbing way in the very densely populated cities of the country, with the main concern the capital New Delhi, which with nearly 80,000 cases has passed Bombay as the most affected.
A general worsening?
The Indian government has come under heavy criticism for its slowness in deploying tests, which critics say has long concealed the reality of the epidemic. The second most populous country in the world (1.3 billion inhabitants) is fourth in number of Covid-19 cases, behind the United States, Brazil and Russia, but has a much lower death toll.
The municipality of New Delhi alone plans to reach 500,000 cases by the end of July, and it has requisitioned wagons, hotels and party halls to unclog its hospitals. Some 33,000 health workers have been called to the rescue to examine 2 million people, one tenth of the capital’s population. All the other cities are preparing for a worsening.
Wider distribution than in China
“It is likely that we are heading, unless we can apply a strict physical distancing mechanism or hard confinement, towards a situation where the infection rate will continue to increase,” said Anant Bhan, a public health expert.
“Unlike China, where the pandemic was relatively more concentrated, around Wuhan and from a few other cities, India has a wider distribution which makes things a little more complicated for the health system, ”he told AFP. This expert is considering the possibility of several peaks of contamination in the coming months, because the pandemic is spreading “variably across the country”.
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