India’s Virus Cases Cross 100,000, Jump at Fastest Pace in Asia

India’s coronavirus infections crossed the 100,000 mark and are escalating at the fastest pace in Asia

Bibhudatta Pradhan

20 May 2020, 08:36 AM IST

India’s Virus Cases Cross 100,000, Jump at Fastest Pace in Asia

Migrant workers and their families sit in the back of a truck traveling along National Highway 24 during a lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus on the outskirts of Delhi, India. (Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- India’s coronavirus infections crossed the 100,000 mark and are escalating at the fastest pace in Asia, just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi further relaxed the country’s nationwide lockdown to boost economic activities.

Infections in the South Asian nation of 1.3 billion people were at 101,261, including 3,164 deaths, as of Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Coronavirus Tracker: Global Cases 4.84 Million; Deaths 318,303

India is now among the nations worst hit by the epidemic, with a 28% increase in cases since last week according to Bloomberg’s Coronavirus Tracker. Neighbor and nuclear rival Pakistan has 43,966 cases including 939 deaths. Its cases increased by 19% over the same period, the tracker showed.

“The challenges are huge, but a two-fold strategy would help reduce infections and flatten the curve,” said Rajmohan Panda, additional professor at the Public Health Foundation of India, adding the rise in infections is expected with the opening of the economy. “The focus should now be prioritized in low income settlements, with an emphasis of sub district level containment measures.”

Since Monday, states have further eased restrictions for industries, shops and offices and reopened public transport, while the lockdown in the worst affected areas of the country -- including a ban on interstate and international air travel -- has been extended until May 31. The government is hoping to ease the economic impact of the world’s biggest lockdown, which has crippled business activity and left millions jobless.

Still, companies are facing difficulties reopening factories -- primarily because of travel restrictions, conflicting rules, broken supply chains and a shortage of workers. The movement of millions of migrant workers from the cities where they had jobs to their homes in rural villages -- and their reluctance to return -- is one of the key challenges for the economy, which could be heading for its first full-year contraction in more than four decade.