COVID-19: Newborn twins named Corona and Covid in India

Experts say India could be weeks away from huge surge that could overwhelm health system

Last updated: April 04, 2020 | 12:45

2 MIN READ

Newborn babies are shown at a hospital maternity ward in India, in this file photo from July 10, 2009.

AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar

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New Delhi: A couple in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh have named their newborn twins Corona and Covid.

The twins - a boy and a girl - were born during the ongoing 21-day long nationwide lockdown that began on March 24.

“The delivery happened after facing several difficulties and therefore, my husband and I wanted to make the day memorable,” Preeti Verma, the 27-old mother of the twins, told news agency Press Trust of India.

The couple said the names would remind them about the hardships they faced during the lockdown and ahead of the successful delivery in a government hospital last week.

The lockdown in India has resulted in the suspension of trains and airline services and effectively kept 1.3 billion Indians at home for all but essential trips to places like markets or pharmacies.

TOPSHOT - Police inspector Rajesh Babu (C) wearing a coronavirus-themed helmet speaks to motorists at a checkpoint during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus in Chennai on March 28, 2020. One minute they're dancing in the street in comical coronavirus helmets, the next they're seen beating people for flouting a nationwide lockdown -- Indian police have played good cop, bad cop in a bid to halt the spread of coronavirus. The streets of India's cities have been largely deserted for more than a week of the government's 21-day lockdown -- no mean feat in a country of 1.3 billion people famed for their flexible attitude towards authority. / AFP / Arun SANKAR

India has 2,909 confirmed cases of the coronavirus across the country, including 68 deaths.

The overall number of known cases in India is small compared with the United States, Italy and China, but health experts say India could be weeks away from a huge surge that could overwhelm its already strained public health system.

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