Modi under pressure to impose lockdown
INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi is facing growing pressure to impose a strict nationwide lockdown, despite the economic pain it will exact, as a surge in coronavirus cases hammers the country’s health system.
Many medical experts, opposition leaders and even Supreme Court judges are calling for national restrictions, arguing that a patchwork of state rules is insufficient to quell the rise in infections.
TV stations broadcast images of patients lying on stretchers outside hospitals waiting to be admitted, with hospital beds and critical oxygen in short supply.
People infected with Covid-19 in villages are being treated in makeshift outdoor clinics, with IV drips hanging from trees.
As deaths soar, crematoriums and burial grounds have been swamped with bodies, and relatives often wait hours to perform the last rites for their loved ones.
The situation is so dramatic that those calling for a strict lockdown include traders who know their businesses will be affected but see no other way out.
India’s surge has served as a warning to other countries with fragile health systems – and also has weighed heavily on global efforts to end the pandemic since the country is a major vaccine producer but has been forced to delay exports of jabs.
Infections have swelled in India since February in a disastrous turn blamed on more contagious variants as well as government decisions to allow massive crowds to gather for religious festivals and political rallies.
Yesterday India reported a new daily record of 414,188 confirmed cases and 3,915 additional deaths. The official daily death count has stayed over 3,000 for the past 10 days.
That takes the total to more than 21.4 million Covid-19 infections and over 234,000 deaths, and experts say those are undercounts.
Over the past month, nearly a dozen of India’s 28 federal states have announced some restrictions, but they fall short of a nationwide lockdown imposed last year that experts credit with helping to contain the virus for a time.
Those measures, which lasted two months, included stay-at-home orders, a ban on international and domestic flights and a suspension of passenger services on the nation’s extensive rail system.
The government provided free wheat, rice and lentils to the poorest for nearly a year and also small cash payments, while Mr Modi also vowed an economic relief package, but the lockdown, imposed at four hours’ notice, also stranded tens of millions of migrant workers who were left jobless and fled to villages, with many dying on the way.
Meanwhile, Japan has extended its state of emergency in Tokyo and other areas until the end of May.
It comes as the country shows social and political strains with coronavirus spreading ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, which start in 11 weeks. Tokyo has logged 907 new cases of coronavirus infection, up sharply from 635 when the state of emergency began in the capital last month.
It is far above the target of 100 that some health experts recommend.
Most Japanese oppose hosting the Olympics during a pandemic, while the government seems determined to hold the event.