India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who imposed a strict closure on short notice last year, called on states to close businesses while the South Asian country struggles with a new wave of Covid-19 infections leading to an emerging economic revival. threatened.
The country in South Asia is now the country worst hit and has lagged behind only the US, after reporting more than 200,000 new infections daily over the past six days.
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“I urge them to lock in as the last option,” Modi said in a televised speech late Tuesday. “They should seriously try to avoid lockdown and concentrate on microcontrolled zones.”
As infections increased, the country’s health system was pushed to a breaking point, and hospitals reported shortages of everything from intensive care beds to medical oxygen. The growing new business has forced India’s financial and political capitals to impose restrictions on the movement, and New Delhi has ordered a strict six-day closure from Tuesday.
In images reminiscent of India’s first strict closing time in late March last year, where hundreds of thousands of workers fled cities, thousands gathered in bus terminals in Delhi earlier this week to return to their incomes. suddenly dried up with the new lock.
Meanwhile, at least six of India’s 30 prime ministers, two federal ministers and opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, have all tested positive for the virus in the past few days.
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The country’s benchmark stock index fell to its lowest level since the end of January on Tuesday and the rupee is Asia’s worst-performing currency this month, as India became the world center of the new outbreak.
In February, the central bank said it expected the economy to expand 10.5% in the year beginning April 1, after an estimated contraction of 7.7% in the previous 12 months.
Relatives of a Covid-19 dying person wearing PPE comforted each other during a funeral in New Delhi on April 19.
Photographer: T. Narayan / Bloomberg
Renewed closures cost the country 1% of gross value added in the quarter of April and June if repeated by other states, according to estimates by HSBC Holdings Plc. Meanwhile, public finances will be hit by the increase in demand for social security programs, weaker tax revenues and uncertainty over asset sales, HSBC economist Pranjul Bhandari wrote in a note published on Tuesday.
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Modi also said his government is working with states and companies to increase medical oxygen and essential medicines needed to fight the pandemic.
– Assisted by Bibhudatta Pradhan and Upmanyu Trivedi
(Updates with exodus of workers in fifth paragraph)