COVID-19 pandemic in India

COVID-19 cases per million people in the states and union territories, according to data from India's Department of Health and Family Welfare

The COVID-19 pandemic in India describes the regional spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in India . The first registered case of COVID19 disease was registered on January 30, 2020. The Indian government tried to curb the spread of the epidemic with entry bans for neighboring states and numerous other states. An extensive curfew was imposed on March 24, 2020. The number of known infections rose continuously. On May 19, 2020, 100,000 cases were recorded, and about a month later on July 17, 2020, there were 1 million cases. This put India in third place worldwide after the United States and Brazil in terms of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Due to the relatively underdeveloped health system in India in relation to its population, the spread of the epidemic is being watched with concern by health professionals.

development

A press conference on "COVID-19" on March 13, 2020 in New Delhi

Indian Secretary of State for the Interior Nityanand Rai visits a quarantine facility on March 13, 2020

After a series of pneumonia in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, a previously unknown coronavirus SARS-CoV emerged as the causative agent in January 2020 . The infectious disease then spread rapidly in various areas of China, but could be brought under control within China through drastic quarantine measures by the Chinese authorities from around mid-February 2020. On the other hand, from around this point in time, the infections outside of China rose exponentially, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the disease outbreak on March 11, 2020 a pandemic and Europe became the focus of the infections.

India was only slightly affected by the pandemic until mid-March 2020. The first documented case occurred in Kerala on January 30, 2020 . An Indian student who had returned from Wuhan was affected. As of March 12, 2020, 50 cases were known and officially 149 cases as of March 19, 2020. According to Health Minister Harsh Vardhan , entry controls began at India's airports as early as January 17, 2020 and, according to him, more than 600,000 people had been tested for the virus at 21 international airports and 77 seaports by March 3, 2020.

Experts warned of a possible disaster if the pandemic hits India in full force and sketched worrying scenarios.

The director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy (CDDEP) in Washington, DC , Ramanan Laxminarayan, stated in an interview with the BCC on March 19, 2020 that it was unlikely that the pandemic in India would develop any differently than in other countries. India may only be a few weeks behind and likely see the same rapid increase in cases as Italy, Spain or China before. India will be the next focus of the disease wave. With the increasing number of tests, the number of cases in India would also go up. Due to its population density, India is particularly affected by person-to-person transmissions. Mathematical modeling assumed that as the virus spreads in states such as the United States and the United Kingdom, between 20% and 60% of the population would become infected with the virus. If you extrapolate these numbers to India and use the lowest assumptions, you would get 300 million infected people. According to previous experience, between 10 and 20 percent of infections were severe, which would mean between 4 and 8 million cases in India that required inpatient hospital treatment. In all of India, however, there are only between 70,000 and 100,000 beds in intensive care units . This is very worrying and India does not have much time to prepare for the pandemic. One has to orientate oneself on the Chinese model and build emergency hospitals in a hurry or, for example, convert stadiums into hospital facilities and prepare the population for the coming problems.

activities

India imposed an entry ban for numerous countries, including from March 18, 2020 for citizens from countries of the European Union , EFTA , the United Kingdom and Turkey .

On March 9, 2020, the state of Mizoram closed its border crossings with Bangladesh , and as of March 15, 2020, 18 of the 37 border crossings with neighboring states of Nepal , Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar have been closed. Border traffic with Pakistan ceased entirely on March 16, 2020. On March 23, 2020, Nepal and Bhutan sealed off their borders with India completely.

On the evening of March 24, 2020, the Indian government declared an extensive curfew for the next 21 days; the ban went into effect four hours later. Hardly anyone had the opportunity to go shopping beforehand.

The measure triggered an internal migration of tens of millions of people - day laborers and seasonal workers, some with their families - who, in some cases, returned to their hometowns over hundreds of kilometers, largely on foot, because they had become unemployed and could not survive in their places of work. The passenger trains were out of service. Only a minority of returning migrant workers were able to use government-provided buses for transportation. The government distributed food publicly. Given the mass migration, concerns have been expressed that it could spread the virus in the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologized publicly on March 29, 2020 for the social hardship of the curfew, which hit the poorest especially hard.

At the end of March 2020 it became known that a conference of the Tablighi Jamaat , which had taken place in Delhi from March 3, 2020, had been the starting point for many infections. As of the morning of April 2, 2020, 389 COVID-19 cases in India had been linked to the conference. This was attended by many hundreds of participants, including many from abroad. Most had subsequently left for their home countries and hometowns, but more than 1,000 people, including around 250 foreigners, were stuck in Delhi after all transport connections were suspended and the curfew was imposed on March 24, 2020. Indian authorities tried to locate the conference participants and, if necessary, to quarantine them.

The government endeavored to alleviate the social hardship through a major loan program announced on March 27, 2020 with a volume of US $ 22 billion. The funds were intended, among other things, for free food for the poor and direct cash transfers to the needy. India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that because of the pandemic, “nobody should be hungry and nobody should be destitute”. Critics argued that the volume of the aid package was insufficient (equivalent to only around 1% of India's GDP compared to around 10% of the aid packages in the United States and Singapore). Concerns were also expressed that the curfew could lead to food shortages.

On April 14, 2020, Prime Minister Modi announced an extension of the curfew until May 3, 2020.

There was some easing in May; domestic flights have been operating again since the end of May.

statistics

The number of cases developed during the COVID-19 pandemic in India according to data from the CSSE at Johns Hopkins University as follows:

Infections

Infections (cumulative) in India
according to data from the CSSE at Johns Hopkins University

Deaths

Cumulative deaths in India
according to data from the CSSE at Johns Hopkins University

consequences

crime

In the context of the pandemic, there has been stigmatization of health workers in India.

economy

In India, shopping centers were closed just four hours after the announcement, which meant that the population had hardly any preparation time and the supply of food was in some cases no longer guaranteed due to extreme hamster purchases.

See also

• List of epidemics and pandemics
• List of deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic

Web links

Commons : COVID-19 Pandemic in India  - Pictures, Videos and Audio Files Collection

Individual evidence

1. ↑ COVID-19 INDIA , Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW)
2. ↑ India's case count crosses 100,000, Delhi eases restrictions: Covid-19 news today. Hindustan Times, May 19, 2020, accessed August 22, 2020 . 
3. ^ Coronavirus: India's Covid-19 cases surge past one million. BBC News, May 19, 2020, accessed August 22, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Pulmonologists on the net: Covid-19: Causes . Online at www.lungenaerzte-im-netz.de. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
5. ↑ Tagesschau: "Deeply worried". WHO speaks of corona pandemic . March 11, 2020. Online at www.tagesschau.de. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
6. ↑ Mukesh Rawat: Coronavirus in India: Tracking country's first 50 COVID-19 cases; what numbers tell. March 12, 2020, accessed on March 19, 2020 . 
7. ↑ Soutik Biswas: Coronavirus: Is India prepared for an outbreak? BBC News, March 7, 2020, accessed March 7, 2020 . 
8. ↑ 'India must prepare for a tsunami of coronavirus cases'. BBC News, March 19, 2020, accessed March 19, 2020 . 
9. ^ Now, India bans entry of Indians from EU, Turkey and UK. The Economic Times, March 18, 2020, accessed March 31, 2020 . 
10. ↑ India: Travel and Safety Advice. Federal Foreign Office, March 12, 2020, accessed on March 12, 2020 . 
11. ^ Coronavirus: Mizoram's international borders to be sealed. The Hindu, March 9, 2020, accessed March 31, 2020 . 
12. ↑ Office Memorandum: Restrictions on international passenger traffic through Land Check Posts in view of the spread of COVID-19y. (pdf) Government of India, March 13, 2020, accessed March 31, 2020 . 
13. ^ Rezaul H. Laskar: As Covid-19 cases rise, Nepal and Bhutan seal borders with India. Hindustan Times, March 23, 2020, accessed March 31, 2020 . 
14. ↑ Coronavirus: India to enter 'total lockdown' after spike in cases. BBC News, March 24, 2020, accessed March 24, 2020 . 
15. ↑ Christoph Hein: Tens of thousands of Indian migrant workers stranded. In: faz.net. March 29, 2020, accessed April 1, 2020 . 
16. ↑ Norms Odenthal: Consequences of the Corona Pandemic - The Exodus of Indian Migrant Workers. In: zdf.de. May 25, 2020, accessed May 25, 2020 . 
17. ↑ Locked down India struggles as workers flee cities and homeless call for food. BBC News, March 30, 2020, accessed March 30, 2020 . 
18. ↑ Coronavirus: India's PM Modi seeks 'forgiveness' over lockdown. BBC News, March 29, 2020, accessed March 30, 2020 . 
19. ^ Tablighi Jamaat: The group blamed for new Covid-19 outbreak in India. BBC News, April 2, 2020, accessed April 2, 2020 . 
20. ↑ Coronavirus: Search for hundreds of people after Delhi prayer meeting. BBC News, March 31, 2020, accessed April 2, 2020 . 
21. ↑ India coronavirus: $ 22bn bailout announced for the poor. BBC News, March 27, 2020, accessed April 7, 2020 . 
22. ↑ Arunoday Mukharji: Coronavirus: India's bailout may not be enough to save economy. BBC News, April 3, 2020, accessed April 7, 2020 . 
23. ↑ Soutik Biswas: Will coronavirus lockdown cause food shortages in India? BBC News, April 7, 2020, accessed April 7, 2020 . 
24. ↑ PM Narendra Modi says India will extend coronavirus lockdown until May 3.BBC News, April 14, 2020, accessed on April 14, 2020 . 
25. ↑ NZZ.ch May 30, 2020: India's lockdown has failed. Now the country is picking it up at the height of the contagion
26. ^ Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Retrieved April 29, 2020 . 
27. ↑ CSSEGISandData / COVID-19. Retrieved August 6, 2020 . 
28. ↑ worldometer India. Retrieved August 6, 2020 . 
29. ↑ Sonja Peteranderl, DER SPIEGEL: Corona crisis in Mexico: Attacks on nursing staff and helpers - DER SPIEGEL - Politics. Retrieved May 6, 2020 . 
30. ↑ - The Washington Post. Retrieved May 6, 2020 . 
31. ↑ Matthias Peer: Modi's huge experiment in the fight against Corona. In: handelsblatt.com. Handelsblatt GmbH, accessed on March 25, 2020 .