Indian capital imposes night curfew ahead of ‘critical’ four weeks in COVID-19 fight

The Indian capital of New Delhi on Tuesday imposed a night-time curfew until April 30 with much of the country struggling to contain a second surge in coronavirus infections that has eclipsed the first wave.   

The next four weeks in India’s fight against COVID-19 will be “very, very critical,” said senior government health official Vinod Kumar Paul, warning that the respiratory disease was now spreading much faster than in 2020.  

“The pandemic has worsened in the country...There is a serious rise in cases,” Paul told reporters.  

India, the world’s second most populous country with 1.35 billion people, has administered 80.9 million vaccine doses, the most after the United States and China, but it lags far behind in immunisations per capita.  

Healthcare and similar frontline workers as well as people over 60 have been the main recipients of vaccinations so far. Inoculations of people above 45 began only on April 1.  

New Delhi authorities launched the 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew a day after India surpassed the grim milestone of 100,000 new daily infections for the first time. The curfew echoes tough restrictions in Maharashtra, the country’s hardest-hit state where the financial capital Mumbai is also located.  

Coronavirus cases jumped by nearly 97,000 on Tuesday, data from the health ministry showed. There were 446 new deaths, taking the total to 165,547.   
NEW DELHI (Reuters)