As repatriation flights continue, India reports nearly 2 million new covid cases in August

Report by : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA

Air India Express has been operating repatriation flights to Singapore and the Middle East from India and domestic flights have resumed. Although HEMA filters are the features of the passenger aircraft in India, these do not stop India from reporting nearly 2 million new confirmed covid cases in August 2020, according to Indian official statistics. 

India has become the country with the largest number of new covid cases in a single month in the world. When the epidemic is not under control, the Indian central government insists on relaxing restrictions to speed up the spread of the epidemic. In addition, the former President of India Mukesh suffered from covid and died.

The Times of India quoted official data on 1 August and pointed out that the number of infections in India has continued to rise rapidly. India added 1,987,705 cases in August, a 50% increase from July.

India is currently growing at a rate of more than 70,000 new cases per day. As of 11 am on 1 August, the cumulative number of cases of covid in India has reached 3.694,878, of which 78,8781 are still receiving treatment and 65,469 have died because of covid.

Apart from China, the United States, the world's most severely affected country, saw 1.94,462 new cases and 1,500,0002,149 new cases in July and August respectively. India's new cases in August surpassed the United States, becoming the country with the most new cases in a single month in the world .

The epidemic situation remains grim. For economic considerations, the Indian government announced the fourth phase of unblocking measures in the evening of 29 August. Subway services in various cities will be re-opened to the public from 7 September, and sports stadiums, political gatherings, cinemas and cultural theatres with less than 100 people will be opened from 21 September but participants must wear masks and maintain social distancing.

The fourth phase of unblocking measures also requires schools at all levels to be closed until 30 September but provinces, cities, and centrally-administered regions still allow up to 50% of faculty and non-teaching personnel to go to schools for online or telephone consultation and related work. Students in grade 12 can voluntarily go to schools outside the severely restricted area to receive teacher guidance, but they must have written consent from their parents or guardians.

Due to the larger scope of this wave of unblocking, experts worry that the speed of deterioration of the epidemic in India will be even faster.