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Every fall, air pollutants increase in India and doctors are involved in what this will mean for coronavirus patients with respiratory problems.
By Jeffrey Gettleman and Hari Kumar
NEW DELHI – As a thick layer of smog spilled around New Delhi on Thursday, signaling the start of the dark season of pollutants, doctors and scientists warned that deteriorating air quality could worsen Covid-19 disorders in the city.
One of the maximum and non-unusual symptoms of severe coronavirus cases is shortness of breath, and doctors say that if ambient air suddenly becomes more toxic, as it does every year right now in northern India, then there will be more people inflamed with the virus. you can end up in the hospital or die.
“If two other people shoot at the lungs, it’s clear that the lungs will have more problems,” said Arvind Kumar, a chest surgeon and founder of the Lung Care Foundation in New Delhi, an organization that raises awareness of respiratory problems.
India is now dealing with two main exercises that attack the respiratory formula and peak at the same time.
Coronavirus cases are spreading everywhere, putting the country on track to have the highest number of virus cases reported in the coming weeks. With 7. 3 million infections reported, it is only 7. 9 million in the United States. And every day, India outnumbers the United States in new infections through about 10,000 more cases a day, even though India’s mortality rate remains much lower.
At the bottom is India’s irritating air pollution, which spreads in autumn and winter. The immediate economic expansion of more than two decades – and with it, greater urbanization and congestion – has left Indian cities horribly polluted.
Last year, India was once home to 14 of the world’s 20 most damaging air-conditioned cities, and fitness experts have detailed how such situations can cause brain damage, respiratory disorders and premature death.
In the fall, air temperature and wind speed drop, condensing pollutants in Indian cities, especially in the north, and farmers in surrounding rural areas burn the stems and debris from their crops, sending huge clouds of black smoke stretching for miles.
This year, there have been five times as many agricultural waste fires in northern India as at the same time last year, and experts say this is a bad sign of what will happen.
The agricultural sector has been a rare bright spot in an Indian economy that has been shattered by the pandemic, and pollutant experts fear more agriculture means more burns.
“My intuition is that this will be an exceptional harvest and a bumper and bumper burning event, the biggest of our lives,” said Jai Dhar Gupta, an environmental activist and ivy League-trained entrepreneur.
“And now that it has the combined effect of a respiratory virus and respiratory contaminants, each and every public fitness specialist holds their breath to see what happens,” Gupta said.
“We’re easy ducks,” he added.
Doctors say prolonged exposure to contaminated air can cause chronic lung inflammation, which can make others exposed to coronavirus more vulnerable. A recent examination in Italy found a correlation between prolonged exposure to dirty air and the accumulation of excess mortality – a higher-than-normal death measure – due to coronavirus.
“Areas affected by contaminants will have a higher incidence of Covid,” said Dr. Kumar, the chest surgeon. “And once the population catches Covid, then they have a greater threat of mortality. “
Until now, the other people in New Delhi this year had been spoiled in terms of breathable air. When a coronavirus blockade in the spring closed many industries and prevented cars from moving, the Delhi sky turned to a miraculous blue. , and at night, citizens felt as if they were being treated with a spectacle of stars. Constellations that hadn’t been noticed for years shone over buildings.
But it’s a dark memory. The sky has regained its same misty brown color and the city smells like smoke.
The Delhi government is doing more this year to combat pollutants, creating a war room to track pollutant hot spots and using anti-smog guns that throw fog into the air to bring down dust.
On Thursday, Delhi officials, who are controlled through progressive political opposition, were caught up in a blame game with national politicians belonging to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing government.
Delhi officials have criticized Modi’s government for not doing enough to prevent fires in the states surrounding the capital. Modi’s administration argued that crop burning contributed only a small amount to global air pollution and accused the Delhi government of not doing enough to remove dust.
Many other people in Indian cities are dressed in masks on those days because of the pandemic, but experts say it probably wouldn’t be much help.
Most people wear a cloth mask or surgical mask that doesn’t seal well and doesn’t prevent them from breathing small contaminant waste (or the virus doesn’t).
Pollution alerts whistled in the city’s WhatsApp messages on Thursday.
“Delhi’s pollutant point is considered dangerous. 335,” reads in a message, referring to an air rate of 335, about six times worse than that of New York City.
The message continued: “Be careful. Older people don’t faint. Wear a mask. “
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