The Taj Mahal resets its doors on Monday in a symbolic gesture of the prestige quo, even as India seems willing to outperform the United States as a world leader in coronavirus infections.
Home to 1. 3 billion people and some of the world’s most populous cities, India has recorded more than 5. 4 million Cases of Covid. Approximately 100,000 new infections and more than 1,000 deaths are reported each day.
But after a strict blockade in March that devastated the livelihoods of tens of millions of people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hesitates in other countries and tightens the screw of activity again.
In contrast, in recent months, his government has eased restrictions, adding many rail routes, domestic flights, markets, restaurants and now, stopover at the Taj Mahal.
The world-famous white marble mausoleum in the south of New Delhi city of Agra is India’s most popular tourist attraction and attracts seven million visitors a year, but has been closed since March.
Authorities say that when it reopens, strict social distance regulations will be imposed and the number of visitors will be limited to 5,000, a quarter of the overall rate. Tickets can only be purchased online.
“Circles are being marked, the mask would be a must and no one can simply enter without a heat shield,” Vasant Swarnkar, senior archaeologist at Agra’s monument index, told reporters.
The world-famous white marble mausoleum is India’s top popular tourist Photo: AFP/Prakash SINGH
However, elsewhere, i. e. in rural areas where infections are increasing, anecdotal evidence suggests that government rules to save it from the virus are ignored more than being met.
“I think that, only in India and around the world, tiredness is taking hold with the excessive measures that have been taken to restrict the expansion of the coronavirus,” said Gautam Menon, professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University, predicting that it continues. to build accordingly.
Many experts say that even though India tests more than a million people a day, it is still not enough and the actual number of cases is possibly much higher than officially reported.
The same goes for deaths, which lately amount to more than 86,000, many of which are well recorded, even in general times in one of the world’s least funded fitness systems.
However, there is some resistance to Modi unlocking the world’s most populous country at the time, which saw its economy contract nearly a quarter between April and June.
Schools were due to resume on Monday on a voluntary foundation for scholars aged 14-17, but many Indian states like Maharashtra and Gujarat said so too soon.
“Cases continue to increaseArray . . . I have no idea how we can reopen educational establishments now,” said West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee.
Elsewhere, they refuse to open or parents are reluctant to send their children.
“I’m in a position for my son to miss a school year for not going to school instead of risking sending him,” said Nupur Bhattacharya, mother of a nine-year-old boy in Bangalore.