Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday April 20 asked his compatriots to face the coronavirus more in order to avoid new confinements in their country, in the grip of a serious health crisis linked to a virulent second epidemic wave.
Read also: Indian variant: should flights be suspended and a quarantine imposed with India?
In his first televised intervention since the explosion in the number of cases of contamination, Narendra Modi acknowledged that India and its 1.3 billion inhabitants were fighting "
once again a big battle
". “
The situation was under control a few weeks ago and the second wave came like a hurricane,
” he said. “
It's a big challenge, but we must together, with courage and determination, overcome it. We must avoid containments and instead we must focus on mini-containment zones
, ”the Prime Minister continued.
Explosion in the number of cases, saturated hospitals ... India is facing a strong resurgence of the epidemic and restrictive local measures have entered into force, as in New Delhi, whose 20 million inhabitants are confined for a week since Monday evening. India has recorded more than three million new infections and 18,000 deaths since the start of the month, the highest numbers in the world behind the United States.
With 273,810 cases over 24 hours, India set a new record on Monday. It was the fifth day in a row that the country surpassed 200,000 new cases, for a total of more than 15 million since the start of the pandemic. Delhi is the most affected city, with more than 25,000 cases recorded in 24 hours. Almost a third of those tested were positive. Many experts blame the increase on careless behavior, as the daily number of new infections fell below 9,000 in February. But, according to experts, the explanation may also be found in the circulation of a new variant.
