“The only way to stop the spread of corona now is a full lockdown,” said Gandhi on Twitter. He said the government’s “inaction is killing many innocent people”.
He was echoed by Dr Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, who recommended a nationwide lockdown and an amping up of the country’s vaccination drive to bring infections under control. “The situation in India is extremely serious,” said Fauci.
Many of India’s worst-hit states and cities are under regional lockdowns, including Delhi and Mumbai, but the prime minister, Narendra Modi, has resisted imposing a countrywide lock because of the huge economic toll it would take.
India: Calls grow for national lockdown as Covid-19 cases pass 20m Modi resisting countrywide lockdown due to economic cost as cases continue to surge
Tue, May 4, 2021, 07:11 Updated: Tue, May 4, 2021, 15:39 Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi
Frontline workers are sprayed with disinfectant at a Covid-19 care centre set up at the Sarojini Naidu Medical College (SNMC) in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. Photograph: Bloomberg
India has passed a grim milestone of 20 million Covid-19 cases amid growing calls for the country to go into a national lockdown.
On Tuesday, India reported 357,229 new cases over the last 24 hours, while the number of deaths rose by 3,449 as a deadly wave of the virus showed no signs of relenting. Many health experts believe India’s true death toll to be five to 10 times higher t
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