The Taj Mahal reopened to visitors on Monday in the usual gesture, even as India prepares to overtake the United States as a world leader in the corona virus infection.
India, with a population of 1.3 billion
and one of the world's most populous cities, has recorded more than 5.4 million
cases. About 100,000 new infections and more than a thousand deaths are
reported’ daily.
But after a severe lockdown in March that
destroyed the livelihoods of tens of millions of people, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi has been reluctant to copy some other nations and escalate the
controversy over activity.
Instead, in recent months, his government
has eased as much restrictions as possible, including many trains, domestic
flights, markets, restaurants and now the Taj Mahal.
The world-famous white marble mausoleum in
Agra, south of New Delhi, is India's most famous tourist destination. It
usually attracts 700,000 visitors a year, but has been closed’ since March.
When it reopens, officials say, stricter
long-distance rules will be enforced’ and the number of daily visitors will be
reduced to 5,000, a quarter of the normal rate. Tickets can only be purchased’
online.
"Circles are being marked, masks will
be mandatory and no one will be able to enter without thermal screening," senior
archaeologist in-charge of Agra's monuments, Vasant Swarnakar, told reporters.
- 'Lockdown fatigue'.
Elsewhere, especially in rural areas where
infection is on the rise, relevant evidence suggests that government guidelines
for avoiding the virus are largely ignored rather’ than followed.
Gautam Menon, a professor of physics and
biology at Ashok University, said, "I think that not only in India but all
over the world, extreme measures are being taken to stop the growth of the
corona virus." Keep growing as a result.
Many experts say that although India is
testing more than a million people a day, it is still not enough and the actual
number of incidents reported in government affairs could be much higher.
The same is true of deaths, which
currently number more than 86,000. One of the world's worst-financed’
healthcare systems has not recorded many deaths in the slightest time.
However, there is some resistance to
Modi's reopening of the world's second most populous country, which saw its
economic deal cut by almost a quarter between April and June.
The schools aimed to reopen on Monday on a
voluntary basis for students between the ages of 14 and 17, but many Indian
states such as Maharashtra and Gujarat have said it is too early.
"Things are still going fast ... I
have no idea how we can reopen educational institutions now," said West
Bengal Education Minister Pratha Chatterjee.
Elsewhere, schools are refusing to open or
parents are refusing to enroll their children.
Nupur Bhattacharya, mother of a
nine-year-old boy in Bangalore, said, "I am ready to miss the academic
year because of the threat to my son instead of going to school."
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