Covid-19:What you need to know today

India’s cumulative coronavirus disease cases crossed the 2.5 million mark on Friday, and the death toll from the viral pandemic crossed 50,000 on Saturday. The number of daily deaths is nearing 1,000. India is adding the most cases a day in the world, but the US and Brazil, #2 and #3 in terms of daily new cases respectively, see more deaths (roughly 50-100 more a day) on average. Even if India’s cases and deaths grow at the same pace, the country will cross the 3 million-case mark early next week, perhaps even by Sunday; and the 100,000-deaths mark by late September or early October. India’s low case fatality rate relative to other countries, just around 2%, is a definite cause for cheer, but the loss of 50,000 lives is still worrying. The Covid-19 pandemic is now in evidence across India — the peninsula, the hinterland, and the eastern parts of the country have all become hot spots for the disease that was once restricted to a few states, and a few urban clusters within those states. Even as progressive fatality rates come down — doctors in India, just like their peers everywhere, have become better at saving lives — and most infections remain mild (even asymptomatic), it is clear that the caseload across India will continue to rise. India, much like the US and Brazil, has not been able to break the chain of infection. A 68-day lockdown may have helped flatten the peak and delay it (India is still to see its) even as the health care system readied itself for the onslaught, but it has not broken the chain. India, the US and Brazil are uniquely similar because of their vast geographical size and population (India has the highest population by a bit and the US, the largest area, again by a bit). And this writer believes the three countries have not been able to control the number of cases partly (and it is a large part) because of how their people have reacted to masks. Let there be no doubt — masks work. And let there be no doubt — research has shown that wearing masks does not reduce oxygen intake or affect breathing capability, even during exercise. These aren’t my opinions — they are facts backed by science. Yet, the US has a troubled relationship with masks, which have been weaponised by politicians in that country. They are still not mandatory in all parts of the country, and many people believe they have a right to not wear masks. The Trump administration, and the US President himself, have both not emphasised the need for masks adequately (and Trump is seen without one almost as often as he is seen with one). Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, one of the few global leaders to be infected with the virus, has not been a vociferous supporter of masks either, and the relative disregard for rules in that country hasn’t helped. India is different. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been punctilious about wearing a mask. This writer had an opportunity to observe him from close quarters at an event in Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday and his mask etiquette and discipline is exemplary. He was wearing the right kind of mask and wearing it the way it is meant to be. Unfortunately, this hasn’t trickled down. There are many people walking around (or cycling around) without masks (with masks under their chins) in every Indian city. They couldn’t care less, or believe WhatsApp forwards about the dangers of wearing masks when exercising or about the superfluity of wearing masks in the great outdoors. There is almost no enforcement — the police clearly have better things to do than enforcing mask discipline. There is no point in trying to educate them because, one, it is a lost cause, and two, it defeats the whole purpose of reducing exposure to them and their exhalations (Survival rule 1 of the pandemic: never argue with a man, or a woman, who isn’t wearing a mask). This is unfortunate, because if everyone wore the right masks the right way, and all the time they are outside their homes, then the number of infections will start declining in a month — community transmission or no community transmission. Yet, we’d rather rest our hopes on a vaccine that has not been developed.