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NEW DELHI (AP) — India recorded its biggest single-day surge in coronavirus cases on Monday, attributed largely to migrant workers returning home after losing their jobs in India’s population centers.
The 5,242 new cases and 157 deaths due to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours took the country’s infection tally to more than 96,000, the most in Asia. It now has 3,029 fatalities.
On Sunday, the federal government extended a nationwide lockdown to May 31 but eased some restrictions to restore economic activity and gave states more control in deciding the nature of the lockdown.
Authorities are largely blaming the surge in infections to the return of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers to India’s villages, which have weaker health infrastructure.
India eased its lockdown rules on May 4 and allowed migrant workers to travel back to their homes, a decision that has resulted in millions of people being on the move for the last two weeks. Rail service resumed, with a limited number of trains running.
All passenger flights remain grounded, and metro services, schools, hotels and restaurants are shuttered nationwide.
Most infections reported in India are from its major cities. Mumbai, the financial capital and home to the Bollywood film industry, alone registered almost 20% of total cases.
People trickled outdoors and thin traffic returned to roads in some Indian states on Monday, a day after the federal government eased many restrictions to restore economic activity.
Small shops and other businesses were reopened in several states, including the capital, New Delhi, where the movement of private transport led to some traffic snarls. E-commerce companies started to deliver goods, including those considered nonessential, to places outside containment zones.
Metro services, flights, schools, shopping malls, colleges, hotels and restaurants, however, continued to remain shuttered nationwide.
The ease in restrictions comes as the federal government gives states more control in deciding the nature of the lockdown and the power to classify areas as certain types of COVID-19 zones based on the spread and severity of cases.
India’s lockdown was introduced on March 25 and has been extended several times. On May 4, India eased lockdown rules and even allowed migrant workers to travel back to their homes, a decision that has resulted in millions of people being on the move for the last two weeks
