Cyclone Tauktae compounds COVID-19 crisis in Kerala

Heavy rains are expected to last until Monday as cyclone hits India’s west coast from the Arabian Sea. In the fight against the pandemic, West Bengal is paying the price for election rallies held a few weeks ago. More than 2,000 bodies wash up along the Ganges.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) – Tropical Cyclone Tauktae is set to hit India’s west coast this week-end, compounding the country’s already troubling pandemic emergency.

The deep depression that formed in the Arabian Sea has already reached some northern districts in the State of Kerala, bringing torrential rains.

According to the India Meteorological Department, the system will intensify in the coming hours and, by Monday, will reach further north. The states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra will be the most affected.

In Kerala’s Kozhikode district, 125 families have had to move from areas deemed to be at high risk for flooding, while 17 relief camps have been set up to accommodate those evacuated.

The situation is complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially its Indian variant, as infection levels remain very high. In the last 24 hours, official sources reported 326,098 new cases with 3,890 deaths.

Although the situation is improving in Delhi, it is getting worse in other states such as West Bengal, which is now paying the price for the election campaign that the Modi government continued despite the spread of the virus a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, more and more bodies are washing up in the Ganges. A local newspaper, Dainik Bhaskar sent 30 of its journalists to inspect more than a thousand kilometres of riverbanks in Uttar Pradesh, finding more than 2,000 bodies dumped in the river because they could not be cremated.

This confirms the fear that the real number of COVID-19 victims in India is much higher than what official sources are willing to admit.

• india
• cyclone Tauktae
• flooding
• evacuations
• covid-19
• pandemic
• deaths