India’s tech hub goes back into lockdown amid coronavirus infections surge

India’s high-tech hub Bengaluru will go back into a coronavirus lockdown on Tuesday for one week, following a surge in infections. Places of worship, public transport, government offices and most shops will shut down again from Tuesday evening. People will be confined to their homes and only allowed out for essential journeys, Reuters said.

Bengaluru is home to some of the world’s biggest IT companies. It had only reported around 1,000 novel coronavirus cases as of mid-June and was seen to have done better than other parts of India in terms of testing and contact tracing.

However, that number has grown to nearly 20,000 as of Monday, which health experts blamed on the lifting of restrictions in June, when the nationwide lockdown that had thrown millions out of work was ended.

India has recorded 906,752 cases of the novel coronavirus, with 28,498 new infections reported on Tuesday, according to the Federal Health Ministry. This is the third highest total in the world, behind Brazil and the US.