WORLD DIARY LIFE AS NEVER BEFORE

Every week our correspondents will bring a taste of life on their patch during the coronavirus pandemic. This week Joe Wallen writes from New Delhi

Monday

Over the weekend, millions of Indians left the cities, having lost their jobs to the lockdown, to walk hundreds of kilometres back to home villages.

Heartbreaking stories covered the front pages as some collapsed and died from exertion en route. The end to the largest migration here since Partition was a very sobering start to what would be an incredibly eerie week.

Tuesday

It’s a beautiful spring day, 32C, and air pollution has plummeted. For the first time in seven days I venture out.

Travelling on quiet main roads takes a long time due to checkpoints. It quickly becomes apparent this is not a European-style lockdown.

The vast majority of Indians, living in cramped and unsanitary conditions, can’t afford to quarantine and we are told it is a choice between staying in and starving or continuing to work at the risk of catching coronavirus.

Later, my photographer and I are forcibly escorted from a slum by a group of heavies, who angrily blame foreigners for spreading the virus.

Wednesday

Social interaction is at an all-time low. It is thanks to Zoom and HouseParty apps that I haven’t entirely lost the plot and I spend the evening participating in a giant pub quiz, organised by my friend Joe, with ex-university mates at home.

Friday

the prime minister, implores us to take to our balconies with candles on Sunday as a “challenge to the darkness of coronavirus”. Admittedly, India needs all the help it can get – every day brings a record number of new cases. I fear the worst is yet to come.

Saturday

The total number of cases across India has doubled over the past three days.

Civil unrest is on the rise and attacks on healthcare professionals and foreigners, both accused of spreading the virus, are particularly shocking.

Pharmaceutical companies warn supplies of essential drugs could run out this month.

In Chhattisgarh state, a 27-year-old woman gave birth to twins after a near-impossible journey to hospital under lockdown.

Their names – Corona and Covid of course.