ISSUE DATE: May 3, 2021
UPDATED: April 24, 2021 12:33 IST
Sadar Bazaar in Delhi wore a deserted look on April 20
Covid-19 has been compared to the Spanish Flu, which killed an estimated 50 million people between 1918 and 1920. A grim feature of the Flu was the devastating multiple waves of infections, similar to what is being seen with the coronavirus. In February this year, even as a massive second wave of Covid-19 cases arrived in Europe, India was in self-congratulatory mode, believing the virus had been controlled and that an economic recovery was underway following the recession in the first half of 2020-21. By mid-March, that sunny optimism was proved false, as cases in India began soaring once more. On April 20, India recorded 259,000 new cases, with 1,761 fatalities in just 24 hours.