Warning for Delhi: Air Pollution to Cause More Coronavirus Deaths
There is a likelihood that hundreds of thousands of people are infected with coronavirus in Delhi and thousands are dying. But Kejriwal is not releasing the correct data.
By Rakesh Raman
A new study reveals a correlation between exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 mortality. It says that a small increase in long-term exposure to PM2.5 leads to a large increase in coronavirus (COVID-19) death rate, with the magnitude of increase 20 times that observed for PM2.5 and all-cause mortality.
Going by the findings of this study, India’s capital New Delhi – which is the most polluted national capital in the world – will have maximum number of coronavirus deaths. Estimates suggest that currently 4,000 people die every month because of pollution in Delhi. With coronavirus, the number of deaths will increase exponentially.
At present Delhi is among the worst-hit Indian states, as chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and delinquent bureaucrats are not taking proper steps to contain the spread of the virus. The Delhi bureaucrats in Kejriwal government are highly corrupt who are ignoring public complaints regarding coronavirus.
Of late, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India, initiated disciplinary proceedings against four bureaucrats of Delhi Government for dereliction of duty regarding containment of the spread of coronavirus.
Now millions of people who live in Delhi’s group housing societies are at risk of catching coronavirus because of non-essential, long-term construction work which is not only spreading pollution, but also increasing the risk of coronavirus contagion. You can download and study the research report on the effect of construction on the coronavirus disease.
It is learnt that people have already started dying in these housing societies, but Kejriwal is not stopping this lethal construction because of huge corruption money involved in such construction projects.
As Kejriwal is a habitual liar, he is announcing some unsubstantiated, negligibly low figures (a couple of thousand only) about the coronavirus cases in Delhi. But he is deliberately hiding the fact that he has not made any arrangement for testing the potential patients.
How can you tell the number of cases without testing a proper representative sample of people from all parts of Delhi? There is a likelihood that hundreds of thousands of people are infected with coronavirus in Delhi and thousands are dying. But Kejriwal is not releasing the correct data.
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At present, the Delhi government is working in a freewheeling manner while the situation is going to exacerbate in the next couple of weeks when thousands of people are expected to die.
The study – done by the researchers of the Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA – underscores the importance of continuing to enforce existing air pollution regulations to protect human health both during and after the COVID-19 crisis.
The study found that an increase of only 1 μg/m3 in PM2.5 is associated with a 15% increase in the COVID-19 death rate. Results are said to be statistically significant and robust to secondary and sensitivity analyses.
According to the study, the majority of the pre-existing conditions that increase the risk of death for COVID-19 are the same diseases that are affected by long-term exposure to air pollution.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also creates and publishes a number of digital publications and research reports on different subjects.
