MUMBAI (AP) – The full metropolis of Bombay and other parts of Maharashtra, the Indian state hardest hit by the pandemic, faces tighter restrictions for 15 days from Wednesday in an effort to curb the rise in coronavirus infections.
Senior state officials stressed that the closure of most industries, businesses, public places and limits on the movement of people did not constitute a blockade.
Last year, a sudden, hard, national shutdown left millions unemployed overnight. Stranded in cities with no income or food, thousands of migrant workers walked the roads to get home. Since then, state leaders have repeatedly stressed that there was no other blockade on the cards.
The distinction did little to calm the anxieties of Ramachal Yadav. On Wednesday morning he joined thousands of others at a Bombay railway station boarding the train back home. “There’s no job,” the 45-year-old said.
India has detected more than 180,000 new infections in the last 24 hours, about a third in the state of Maharashtra. To date, India has confirmed more than 13.9 million cases and 172,000 deaths in what is probably an underestimation.
Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said most public places, shops and establishments will close from 8pm on Wednesday, and expect essential services such as grocery stores and banks.
While the state has announced a $ 728 million relief package that will include aid for the poor, industry experts say the new restrictions could prove fatal to companies that were just recovering from the crisis. last year’s economic recession..
“Livelihoods are important, but life is more important,” Thackeray said, echoing a difficult choice facing other states in India.
The scenes that were performed in Maharashtra last week reflect those that take place in other parts of the country: patients who were blowing air were moving away from hospitals that were running out of oxygen and crying families were waiting their turn to say goodbye to your loved ones in crematoria.
The concern we like is the question of whether India, despite being the world’s leading manufacturer of vaccines, will have enough to immunize its vast population quickly enough to curb the virus.
India said on Tuesday it would authorize vaccines to which the World Health Organization or regulators in the United States, Europe, Britain or Japan had made an emergency gesture. Indian regulators also approved Russia’s Sputnik V for emergency use. But experts said the decision is unlikely to have an immediate impact on supplies available in the country.
“All you can think about is that, I hope I don’t get sick for the next month or so,” said Dr. Vineeta Bal, who studies immune systems at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research. city of Pune, in the state of Maharashtra. .
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Ghosal reported from New Delhi.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.