Infections rise but India eyes economic recovery
TAJ MAHAL OPENS DOORS TO TOURISTS WHILE SOME SCHOOLS WELCOME PUPILS
THE Taj Mahal and some schools reopened on Monday (21) as authorities in India pressed ahead with kickstarting the nation’s coronavirus-battered economy despite soaring infection numbers.
India has recorded more than 5.4 million Covid-19 cases, second only to the US which it could overtake soon.
But after a strict lockdown in March that devastated the livelihoods of tens of millions of people, prime minister Narendra Modi is reluctant to copy some other nations and tighten the screw on activity again. Instead, in recent months, his government has eased more and more restrictions, including on many train routes, domestic flights, markets, restaurants – and now, visiting the Taj Mahal.
“We are not afraid of the virus. If it has to infect us, it will,” said bank official Ayub Sheikh, 35, visiting the Taj with his wife and baby daughter.
“Not many people are dying now. I don’t think it is going to go away soon. We have to get used to it now.”
The Taj Mahal in Agra, south of New Delhi, is India’s most popular tourist site. It usually draws seven million visitors a year, but the white-marble mausoleum has been closed since March.
Officials said strict social distancing rules were in place and visitors were not allowed to touch the marble. The famous bench where visitors sit for a photo has been specially laminated so that it can be regularly sanitised without damage.
Early on Monday, a couple of hundred of visitors were inside. Security personnel were reminding everyone to wear masks once photos have been clicked. Daily visitor numbers have been capped at 5,000 – a quarter the normal rate.
Elsewhere in India, particularly in rural areas where infections are soaring, anecdotal evidence suggests that government guidelines on avoiding the virus are more often ignored than adhered to. “I think, not just in India but all over the world, fatigue with extreme measures that were taken to restrict the growth of the coronavirus is setting in,” said Gautam Menon, professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University, predicting that infections will keep rising.
Many experts say that even though India is testing more than a million people per day, this is still not enough and the true number of cases may be much higher than officially reported.
The same goes for deaths, which currently stand at more than 86,000, with many fatalities not properly recorded even in nor
mal times in one of the funded healthcare systems.
There is however some resistance to Modi’s unlocking of the country, which saw its economy contract by almost a quarter between April and June.
Schools were allowed to resume Monday on a voluntary basis for students aged 14 to 17, but most Indian states have said it is still too soon.
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