MOSCOW: Russia and India eased coronavirus restrictions on Tuesday, despite facing upsurges in infections and expert warnings that the world could face a second wave of infections.

Chinese authorities, meanwhile, moved to test the entire 11-million strong population of the city of Wuhan, cradle of the global pandemic, after new cases were reported there.

In Russia, the government began to gradually ease lockdown rules on Tuesday as the country’s infections surged past 232,000 — now the second highest in the world after only the United States, according to a tally.

The grim landmark came as President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told news agencies he has the virus.

In India, the railway network ground back to life, in defiance of a recent surge in the number of infections, with 3,600 recorded on Monday, just below Sunday’s record tally.

The country of 1.3 billion imposed a strict shutdown in late March, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has credited with keeping cases to a modest 70,000, with around 2,300 deaths.

Iran also eyed a cautious easing of its restrictions and said it would reopen mosques for three nights this week for the first time since March, after struggling to contain the outbreak that has killed more than 6,700 people in the country.

South Korea, credited with one of the world’s more successful anti-virus campaigns, said it was using mobile phone data to track Seoul nightclub visitors after a cluster of new cases.

The outbreak — which forced a delay in reopening schools — involves gay venues and potential carriers are feared to be reluctant to come forward because of the stigma surrounding homosexuality.

And in Britain, which already has Europe’s most confirmed deaths, the Office of National Statistics said reports from care homes for the elderly suggest the government’s tally of 32,065 deaths underestimates the full toll.

Precautionary economic and social lockdowns have paralysed much of the global economy and, while many areas are now cautiously moving back to work, world markets are trading cautiously, amid fears of a second wave epidemic.

The United States — where at least 80,000 people have died — has by far the world’s highest caseload, but President Donald Trump is keen to reopen the economy quickly amid soaring job losses.

He faces resistance, however, and Washington’s top epidemiologist Anthony Fauci has warned of “needless suffering and death” if Americans return to work and group leisure activities before the pandemic is under control.

“If we skip over the checkpoints in the guidelines to: ‘Open America Again’, then we risk the danger of multiple outbreaks throughout the country,” Fauci told the New York Times in an email.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2020