In India, the number of Covid cases has doubled in three days: more than 140,000 cases in 24 hours. A night-time curfew at 10 p.m. has been put in place in most areas. New Delhi, the federal capital, goes even further.
With our correspondent in New Delhi, Sébastien Farcis
It’s 2 p.m. this Saturday, usually rush hour in the Defense Colony shopping district in southern New Delhi, but the streets are mostly deserted.
Jimmy Vandhavan’s grocery store is one of the only stores that is allowed to open. ” There are no customers, people do not venture out, he said. No one knows what will happen this time. Fortunately, for the past year we have been delivering citywide free of charge, using contactless payments. But that doesn’t compensate, of course. “
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“A disaster for the poor”
A little further, in the Kotla bazaar, the situation is much more serious. About fifty people line up in front of a temple that distributes food for all the workers left without income.
” This confinement is a disaster for poor people like us, laments Ramu Kumar, ironworker. We have to feed our families temple food now. Since Modi has ruled the country, there is always something bad happening to us. “
For now, despite the explosion of Covid-19 cases in the capital, only 11% of hospital beds dedicated to Covid are occupied. And the regional government excludes any generalized containment.
► Read also: Covid in India: faced with the scale of the 3rd wave, the authorities impose curfews and partial confinements