New Delhi recorded fewer than 1,000 coronavirus cases for the first time in seven weeks yesterday, even as more states imposed restrictions to halt the spread of the pandemic.
India last week became the third country after the United States and Brazil to hit 1mn cases but many experts say that with testing rates low, the true number could be much higher.
More than 28,000 people have died, with Maharashtra, home to Mumbai and its teeming slums, suffering the highest death toll followed by the national capital and Tamil Nadu.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in late March, but it has been steadily eased in recent months to lessen the devastating economic impact.
But, independently from the federal government, individual states have been tightening restrictions as case numbers have soared – including in Bengaluru, Bihar and parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
On Monday authorities in West Bengal, home to about 90mn people, imposed a strict lockdown two days a week beginning tomorrow.
“The state government feels that the efforts to break the chain of Covid-19 spread have to be initiated in a strong manner,” the state’s home secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said.
All government and private offices will be closed and there will be no public transport.
Private vehicles will be allowed for essential needs only.
The small northeastern state of Sikkim, bordering Tibet, on Monday also ordered a lockdown until July 27.
Delhi has offered a rare piece of good news, however, with the crisis easing since June, when hospitals and morgues in the sprawling megacity appeared close to collapse.
Monday’s count of 954 new infections in the city marked the first time the daily tally was under 1,000 in 49 days, and was down from a peak of almost 4,000 in late June.
A study testing antibodies of a random sample of people in the national capital published yesterday showed almost one in four people in the city have been infected with the coronavirus,
According to the result of the survey, 23.48% of the 21,387 people whose blood samples were tested had Covid-19 antibodies, a government statement said.
The study, which was conducted by the National Centre for Disease Control, showed that the infection rate in New Delhi was much higher than the number of confirmed cases indicated.
For a city with an approximate population of 20mn, the total number of cases at a 23.4% rate should stand around 4.7mn.
But Delhi currently has a total of 123,747 cases, less than 1% of its population.
The government said the difference indicated that a “large number of infected persons remain asymptomatic” and commended “proactive efforts” like lockdown measures to prevent the spread of infection.
As only 23.48% of people were affected in Delhi six months into the epidemic, a significant proportion of the population remained vulnerable and containment and preventive measures needed to continue with the same vigour, the government added.
People suffering from the coronavirus disease perform yoga inside a care centre for Covid-19 patients at an indoor sports complex in New Delhi yesterday.
