India's COVID-19 Case Passes 20 Million, Opposition Leader Urges To Implement National Lockdown

Indian PM Narendra Modi during his press release on COVID-19 (Wikimedia Commons / Press Information Bureau, Government of India)

JAKARTA - Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has called for a nationwide lockdown, along with the surge in cases of COVID-19 infection in India which has passed 20 million cases, 20.282.833 cases, number two in the world after the United States.

India's second deadly wave of infections, the world's largest surge in coronavirus infections, took more than four months to add 10 million cases, compared with more than 10 months for the first 10 million cases.

On Tuesday, India reported 357.229 new cases over the past 24 hours, while deaths rose by 3.449 with 222.408 victims, health ministry data showed.

Medical experts say the true figure in India could be five to 10 times higher than reported.

"The only way to stop the spread of the corona now is a complete lockdown. The inaction of the Indian government is killing a lot of innocent people", Congressman Gandhi said on Twitter, referring to the Government of India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is reluctant to impose a national lockdown, along with fears of a collapse in the Indian economy. Although, several countries have imposed various social restrictions.

A spike in cases of the highly contagious Indian variant of COVID-19 has flooded the health system, depleting the medical oxygen supply essential for the survival of those infected. Many of the bedridden patients died in ambulances and parking lots outside the hospital.

Lines of funeral pyres in the park and car park cremated the corpses. Along with the crematorium that has been working 24 days a week, it is no longer able to accommodate the burden of the dead bodies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Indian government has been criticized for being slow to anticipate a wave of COVID-19 infections, after the curve drastically decreased from September 2020 to February 2021. As well as allowing millions of people, mostly not wearing masks, to attend religious festivals and political rallies.

In addition, the COVID-19 spike in India has coincided with a drastic drop in vaccinations, due to supply and delivery issues.

"What the past few weeks have revealed is, both the Center and the states are very unprepared for a second wave", the Times of India editorial said on Tuesday.