Anxiety Over India’s Rising Coronavirus Cases

• 386 confirmed cases in 24 hours
• Figure inflames religious tension

Amid fears that true figures are much higher than officially released, serious doubt has been cast over India’s claims that it has no community transmission of the deadly coronavirus after the country reported its biggest daily rise in number of confirmed cases so far.

This is as reports indicate low levels of testing and poor access to healthcare means many people not reporting or being captured on the current data in relations to the pandemic outbreak.

India reported a record increase of 386 cases in the past 24 hours, pushing the total number to 1,637, according to the country’s health ministry. The death toll is now 38.

The country’s health officials disclosed that regrettably this alarming figure is connected to a religious gathering held in Delhi about two weeks ago.

Another worrying development is the first coronavirus case that has been confirmed in Mumbai’s Dharavi slum, which is India’s largest and home to almost one million people living in close, unsanitary quarters.

The index case, a 56-year-old man was taken to Sion hospital and eight of his family members placed in quarantine.

Yet for a densely populated country of 1.3 billion people, the number of cases is still relatively low compared with Europe and the US. Reports claimed that the present record is being linked to both low levels of testing and poor access to an already overstretched healthcare system with people not reporting their symptoms.

India spends only about 1.3 per cent of its GDP on public health, among the lowest in the world. Only 47,951 tests have been done so far and there are just 51 government-approved testing centres across the country.

The jump in number of cases was linked to an annual two-day convention of the Muslim sect Tablighi Jamaat on March 13, 2020 for which about 3,500 people gathered from all over the country and abroad in the south Delhi neighbourhood of Nizamuddin.

Almost 2,000 people stayed in the area for days afterwards, and the area has become the coronavirus hotspot of India.

The outbreak from the Nizamuddin mosque gathering also inflamed religious tensions in a city still reeling from communal riots last month that took 50 lives, with Hindu mobs rampaging through the streets attacking Muslims in their homes.

Across Indian media and social networks, Muslims were blamed for spreading the virus while “Corona Jihad” began to trend on Twitter.

The gathering also appeared to trigger a spread of the virus across numerous states from Kashmir to West Bengal by those who returned home afterwards. So far, 10 people who attended the event have died while 1,800 people have been sent to nine hospitals and quarantine centres across the country.

However, despite the jump in number of cases this week, the Indian government insists there is still no community transmission and that cases have been either from those who travelled abroad or in localised incidents.

Lav Agarwal, the joint Secretary in the Health Ministry, told reporters: “Nowhere have we said that there is a community transmission. We are still in a local transmission in this country.” – The Guardian