India Becomes Second Worst Hit Country by COVID-19- The Road Ahead

What seemed like a slow start of spread now knows no bounds. 

The total number of cases in India reached the mark of 4.2 million on Monday, confirmed the officials, transcending Brazil. 

Now placed just below the USA, India has the second-highest number of Covid-19 cases in the world.  Experts warn that in a country with a population of 1.3 billion people, the avalanche has not hit the ground yet. India’s tally of daily new infections lately has been the highest in the world with over 90,000 cases reported alone on Monday.   

The AIIMS director Randeep Guleria said that the increasing number of Covid-19 cases is a great concern as the healthcare system is getting strained. Moreover, the stigma of getting infected by the virus is gradually mellowing down in people. For they have now moved away from taking the necessary precautions of wearing a mask, maintaining hand sanitization and physical distancing. 

The Road Ahead:

Not many took the subway

After the governments of our national capital and other cities, announced for the metro services to restart, not many took the subway. The reason being, the early consumers of the service didn’t find it too safe to ride. Although, various safety protocols are kept in place by the authorities. 

Earlier New Delhi’s subway used to carry about 2.6 million people every day. The metro services were only half operative on Monday with an estimate to get back on track fully, by the end of the week.

The series of precautions taken were:

-Wearing masks and using smart cards that can be digitally recharged is compulsory. 

-Commuters can enter the stations only after thermal screening.

-They can only occupy alternate seats, and the trains would stop for longer at stations to avoid congestion.

-Security personnel, with proper preventive care, would be deployed at every station to maintain the guidelines issued.

-The station will be disinfected every few hours.

Though the bars are lifted, authorities still have asked people to leave their houses only if necessary.

Livelihood lost for many:   

“While lives are important, livelihoods are equally important,” Rajesh Bhushan, the top official of India’s federal health ministry said at a news briefing last week. 

-According to estimates, 19 million people have lost their jobs since March. People under the age of 30 have been hit the most, according to the International Labor Organisation (ILO).

-The Indian economy contracted 23.9% during Q² of this year- triggering the country’s first recession in 40 years.

-India is facing the worst economic crisis since independence. 

-90% of the workers working in the informal sector is at risk of falling into poverty, according to the World Bank.

Over to you

For India so far, the silver lining has been the relatively fewer fatalities due to the virus, for it has recorded 71,642 deaths, far fewer than in Brazil and the United States. This is because India predominantly is a young nation and the impact on the younger generation of the virus is mild with a much lower mortality rate. Furthermore, as India is taking gradual steps towards unlocking, it’s important to not forget the necessary precautions- mask, sanitize and maintain distance.