India has officially suffered only about 7,500 Covid-19 deaths out of its 1.4bn population. Yet the pandemic’s total human cost there has in many ways already been among the worst in the world. On March 24, prime minister Narendra Modi imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns when India still had little over 500 cases, insisting it would “emerge victorious” against the virus. Since late May, the country has been reopening its severely battered economy — even as rising numbers of new infections are overwhelming its hospitals. Mr Modi now says the virus will “remain part of our lives for a long time”. India looks dangerously ill-equipped for that prospect.
據官方數據，印度的14億人口中只有約7500例新型冠狀病毒肺炎（COVID-19，2019冠狀病毒病）死亡病例。但從許多方面看，這場疫情對印度造成的人類代價已經是世界上最嚴重的幾個國家之一。3月24日，當印度的病例數只是略微超過500例時，印度總理納倫德拉•莫迪(Narendra Modi)實施了世界上最嚴格的封鎖措施之一，堅稱印度將會「以勝利姿態」解除封鎖。自5月下旬以來，印度開始重啓其遭受重創的經濟——即使不斷上升的新增感染病例讓醫院不堪重負。現在莫迪表示，新冠病毒將「長期與我們共存」。要說迎接這個前景，印度看起來處於危險的不利地位。