Delhi hospitals reserved for residents after a surge in new cases
INDIA’S capital has reserved hospital beds for residents as the country again posted a record spike in virus cases and the sick flocked in from the provinces.
The world’s second most populous nation yesterday announced close to 10,000 new infections, while neighbouring Pakistan passed 2,000 deaths.
The sharp acceleration in the neighbouring countries has added to fears the region, where a fifth of humanity live, is becoming a new virus hotspot.
The data shows that, just as both countries ease months of restrictions, cases and deaths are gathering speed.
India reported 9,971 new cases yesterday, a day before it prepared to reopen retail malls, hotels and religious places after a crippling 10-week lockdown. The country has passed Spain as the fifth hardest-hit with 246,628 cases and 6,929 fatalities.
Narendra Modi, the prime minster, has already partially restored train services as well as domestic flights and allowed shops and manufacturing to reopen. Online companies have started to deliver goods, including those considered non-essential, to places outside containment zones. However, schools and cinemas still remain closed.
The worst affected cities have included New Delhi, the capital, Mumbai, the commercial capital, and the western city of Ahmedabad.
New Delhi city alone has registered more than one-in-10 of the total cases, making it the third worst-affected part of the country after the western state of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai, and southern Tamil Nadu state.
Major cities risk being overwhelmed as rural families bring the sick in from the provinces, officials have said.
“Delhi is in big trouble ... corona cases are rising rapidly,” Arvind Kejriwal, the state chief minister, said in a video on Twitter, as he announced that private and city government-run hospitals would be reserved for residents.
“If we open Delhi hospitals for patients from all over, where will Delhi residents go when they get infected with coronavirus,” he asked.
India and Pakistan share potentially fertile breeding grounds for the virus, with shaky health systems, densely crowded cities and poverty, which makes economic lockdown prohibitively painful.
Pakistan is nudging 100,000 confirmed infections and Imran Khan, the prime minister, has warned that the country of more than 220 million people will have to learn to live with the virus.
He has repeatedly said his country is too poor to go into a full lockdown, which he warned would devastate a failing economy.
The Islamabad government’s mixed messages have led many to reject social distancing rules entirely.
Pakistan’s medical professionals
‘If we open Delhi hospitals for patients from all over, where will Delhi residents go when they get infected?’
have pleaded for more controls and greater enforcement of social distancing directives.
They were infuriated that Mr Khan’s government bowed to the radical religious Right to keep open mosques, which have been one of the leading causes of the spikes in infections.
Pakistan says the numbers of cases and deaths is below early estimates and that, while demands are rising, there are still intensive care beds available.
However, doctors warned there had been a leap in cases after socialising to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan. They warned that hospital wards have filled up in recent days.