NEW DELHI: Indian authorities Friday announced a tentative easing of the lockdown in the capital New Delhi as coronavirus infections fall in major cities after weeks of restrictions.
Rural areas of the country are now seeing the brunt of a surge in cases that has overwhelmed the health care system and killed at least 160,000 people since the start of March.
Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s chief minister, said that from Monday construction work and factories can resume, “keeping the poorest section of our society, the laborers and daily wage workers, in mind.”
“We are starting the process of reopening very, very slowly. We will reassess it after a week based on experts and people’s opinions,” he said.
Daily infections reported across India have more than halved from more than 400,000 earlier this month, according to official statistics.
Deaths per day have also fallen but by much less, with 3,660 reported on Friday in the previous 24 hours. This is widely seen as a major underestimate.
Delhi reported Friday about 1,100 new infections, down from about 25,000 daily cases when the lockdown was announced six weeks earlier.
Even as he announced reopening from Monday, Kejriwal urged people of Delhi to “not step out of your homes unnecessarily.”
“This is a very sensitive time and we have to function with full responsibility so that we can together save our Delhi and our country,” he said.
The devastating surge was blamed on new virus variants and the government having allowed most activity to return to normal including mass religious and political gatherings.
Coronavirus patients died in droves outside hospitals or at home because of a lack of beds, medical oxygen and drugs, prompting a flood of desperate pleas on social media.
Since mid-April thousands of Covid-19 patients have also contracted the often deadly and usually very rare infection mucormycosis, or “black fungus.”
Many other parts of India including the states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are now also considering easing restrictions on activity.
India’s vaccination program meanwhile is making only slow progress due to shortages, confusion and squabbling between the central government and state authorities.
So far about 160 million people, equivalent to only 12.5 percent of the Indian population, have received one dose, and 45 million, or 3.4 percent, two shots.
India’s information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday said the vaccination process would be completed by the end of the year.
“Last week, the health ministry gave details in their press conference. They said that about 216 crore (2.16 billion) vaccine doses will be available by December. 108 crore (1.08 billion) people will be vaccinated,” the minister said.
“They (the health ministry) also shared a breakdown of vaccines that will be available — both locally manufactured and those that will come from outside,” Javadekar added.
The crisis has put Prime Minister Narendra Modi under severe pressure, with critics accusing his government of being more focused on deflecting criticism than the pandemic.
“I would request him (Modi) to stop worrying about his image and start worrying about the problem in front of him,” Rahul Gandhi from the main opposition Congress party said Friday.
“Which is now killing people and will probably end up killing millions of people.”
New Delhi announces ‘very, very slow’ easing of coronavirus lockdown
New Delhi announces ‘very, very slow’ easing of coronavirus lockdown
- Many other parts of India including the states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are now also considering easing restrictions on activity
Reference to Trump’s impeachments is removed from the display of his Smithsonian photo portrait
- For now, references to Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton being impeached in 1868 and 1998, respectively, remain as part of their portrait labels, as does President Richard Nixon’s 1974 resignation as a result of the Watergate scandal
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s photo portrait display at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has had references to his two impeachments removed, the latest apparent change at the collection of museums he has accused of bias as he asserts his influence over how official presentations document US history.
The wall text, which summarized Trump’s first presidency and noted his 2024 comeback victory, was part of the museum’s “American Presidents” exhibition. The description had been placed alongside a photograph of Trump taken during his first term. Now, a different photo appears without any accompanying text block, though the text was available online. Trump was the only president whose display in the gallery, as seen Sunday, did not include any extended text.
The White House did not say whether it sought any changes. Nor did a Smithsonian statement in response to Associated Press questions. But Trump ordered in August that Smithsonian officials review all exhibits before the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The Republican administration said the effort would “ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”
Trump’s original “portrait label,” as the Smithsonian calls it, notes Trump’s Supreme Court nominations and his administration’s development of COVID-19 vaccines. That section concludes: “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.”
Then the text continues: “After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837– 1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.”
Asked about the display, White House spokesman Davis Ingle celebrated the new photograph, which shows Trump, brow furrowed, leaning over his Oval Office desk. Ingle said it ensures Trump’s “unmatched aura ... will be felt throughout the halls of the National Portrait Gallery.”
The portrait was taken by White House photographer Daniel Torok, who is credited in the display that includes medallions noting Trump is the 45th and 47th president. Similar numerical medallions appear alongside other presidents’ painted portraits that also include the more extended biographical summaries such as what had been part of Trump’s display.
Sitting presidents are represented by photographs until their official paintings are commissioned and completed.
Ingle did not answer questions about whether Trump or a White House aide, on his behalf, asked for anything related to the portrait label.
The gallery said in a statement that it had previously rotated two photographs of Trump from its collection before putting up Torok’s work.
“The museum is beginning its planned update of the America’s Presidents gallery which will undergo a larger refresh this Spring,” the gallery statement said. “For some new exhibitions and displays, the museum has been exploring quotes or tombstone labels, which provide only general information, such as the artist’s name.”
For now, references to Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton being impeached in 1868 and 1998, respectively, remain as part of their portrait labels, as does President Richard Nixon’s 1974 resignation as a result of the Watergate scandal.
And, the gallery statement noted, “The history of Presidential impeachments continues to be represented in our museums, including the National Museum of American History.”
Trump has made clear his intentions to shape how the federal government documents US history and culture. He has offered an especially harsh assessment of how the Smithsonian and other museums have featured chattel slavery as a seminal variable in the nation’s development but also taken steps to reshape how he and his contemporary rivals are depicted.
In the months before his order for a Smithsonian review, he fired the head archivist of the National Archives and said he was firing the National Portrait Gallery’s director, Kim Sajet, as part of his overhaul. Sajet maintained the backing of the Smithsonian’s governing board, but she ultimately resigned.
At the White House, Trump has designed a notably partisan and subjective “Presidential Walk of Fame” featuring gilded photographs of himself and his predecessors — with the exception of Biden, who is represented by an autopen — along with plaques describing their presidencies.
The White House said at the time that Trump himself was a primary author of the plaques. Notably, Trump’s two plaques praise the 45th and 47th president as a historically successful figure while those under Biden’s autopen stand-in describe the 46th executive as “by far, the worst President in American History” who “brought our Nation to the brink of destruction.”
