Thousands of commuters crowded into underground train stations and shopping malls on Tuesday in the national capital, prompting doctors to raise concerns and warnings of a resurgence in Covid-19 infections.
Delhi has begun lifting strict lockdowns in a phased manner as the tally of daily Covid-19 infections has dropped to its lowest level in more than two months. After a strict five-week lockdown, the authorities have fully reopened shops and malls, and allowed restaurants to have 50% seating. Also, Suburban rail networks are allowed to run at 50% capacity, and offices have been partially reopened.
Today, Delhi’s underground rail network on Twitter warned about peak traffic and longer waits, responding to angry commuters angry about long queues.
In view of the grave situation, doctors have cautioned that a race towards resuming business as usual would compromise vaccination efforts as only about 5 percent of all 950 million eligible adults have been inoculated.
In the national capital, the vaccination process has slowed, however, the authorities have said that inoculation centres for people ages 18-44 would start shutting down, as doses were scarce.
The disease experts and doctors said Delhi’s near-complete re-opening is concerning, despite city’s authorities having said they would reimpose strict curbs if cases rise. Delhi’s top #mall saw a footfall of 19,000 people last weekend- as soon as it reopened. Have we gone totally mad? (sic), tweeted Ambrish Mithal of Max HealthCare in New Delhi. Wait for #COVID19 to explode again- and blame the government, hospitals, country, he added.
Arvinder Singh Soin, a surgeon and leading liver transplant specialist, tweeted, Delhi ought to have unlocked far more scientifically. We are inviting trouble!
Last month, thousands succumbed to the deadly disease as oxygen supplies all but vanished and families pleaded on social media over scarce hospital beds. Many died in parking lots, and morgues ran out of space. People paid 20 times the usual price to secure ambulances and hearses.
Meanwhile, India has reported 60,471 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours, the lowest number since March 31, data from the health ministry showed.