India's virus infections overtake Brazil as rail services resume
India displaced Brazil on Monday to take second place after the United States in terms of coronavirus infections, with 90,082 new cases whose numbers are expected to grow, while some cities re-opened underground train services shuttered for months. With its nationwide tally of 4.2 million exceeded only by the U.S. figure of 6.2 million, India is adding more cases each day than any other country this year since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Experts say there is no sign of a peak as cases surge in the world's second most populous country, both in major cities, such as New Delhi and the financial hub of Mumbai, and rural areas that have limited access to health services. "It's becoming a double burden now," Rajib Dasgupta, a professor of community health at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in the capital, told Reuters.
"The urban areas are not slowing down and rural areas are picking up." Monday's jump was the third straight daily record in India, government data showed, provisionally carrying its tally past Brazil, which has just over 4.1 million cases, although the time difference means the South American nation will release 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 nationwide, adding that high recovery rates show its strategy of testing, tracing and treatment is working and the situation is under control in a country of its size.
Commuters were sparse as New Delhi resumed metro rail services after a break of more than five months, with stations nearly deserted. Bars will open from Wednesday in the capital. Partial metro train services also opened in the western city of Ahmedabad, the northern city of Lucknow and several other places, after nearly six months of suspension over the pandemic.
Pressure is growing for the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pull the economy out of a deep freeze after a severe lockdown in
March shuttered businesses, leaving millions without jobs, bringing a 24% contraction in June-quarter GDP.
Meanwhile, South Korea reported its lowest tally of new coronavirus infections in more than three weeks on Monday, but officials are weighing whether to extend social distancing curbs ahead of one of the country's biggest holidays this month.
Thousands of trainee doctors appeared set to end a two-week protest strike against government healthcare reforms after they agreed to go back to work from Tuesday. Daily cases have dropped steadily since a late August peak of more than 400. By midnight on Sunday, 119 more cases took the national tally to 21,296, with 336 deaths, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Authorities stopped short of widespread lockdowns in a bid to avert economic damage, but unprecedented measures, such as curbs on coffee shops and eateries, and mandatory masks in public, have been extended in the Seoul area until Sunday.
Slightly looser nationwide curbs run until at least Sept. 20, but officials said they may extend them over the Chuseok holiday, from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4. Chuseok is one of South Korea's biggest holidays, but officials urged against traditional visits to meet relatives or gather at family graves. "We urge you to refrain from visiting hometowns and relatives, if possible, this Chuseok to protect the health of you and your family," ministry official Yoon Tae-ho told a briefing.
Measures being considered are bans on gatherings of more than 50 people indoors and 100 outdoors, and on audiences at sports games, as well as requests for people to work staggered hours or from home. A group representing trainee doctors who had held out after a pact with the government last week to end the strike said they would return to work on Tuesday, but warned of further action unless the government offered concessions within two weeks.
The government has agreed to delay until after the coronavirus crisis measures it says would defend against future outbreaks, but which the doctors say would merely swell their numbers in cities without improving rural medical services.