Modi warns against overcrowding at tourist spots

(File photo) India Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned yesterday against overcrowding at tourist sites and called for faster vaccinations against the coronavirus even as official figures indicated a slower spread of new infections. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) said on Monday it feared gathering of tourists and pilgrims could become super spreader events that fuel a deadly third wave of infections and it warned against complacency. “I will say very emphatically that it is not OK to have huge crowds in hill stations, markets, without wearing masks,” Modi said in comments posted on Twitter while acknowledging the tourism industry has been badly hit by lockdowns. India’s coronavirus caseload of 30.91 million infections is the world’s second-highest behind the United States. Its official tally of deaths is 410,784, many of them coming in a brutal second wave of infections in April and May when people died outside hospitals as they waited for beds and bodies were washing up on the banks of the holy Ganges river. Yesterday, authorities reported 32,906 new cases — the lowest daily tally since mid-March — compared with some 400,000 a day at the height of the second wave.