title: Hudson River

text: The Delaware and Hudson Canal meets the river at this point. The river then flows by Hyde Park, former residence of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and alongside the city of Poughkeepsie, flowing under the Walkway over the Hudson and the Mid-Hudson Bridge. Afterwards, the Hudson passes Wappingers Falls and takes in Wappinger Creek. The river then forms the boundary between Orange and Dutchess Counties. It flows between Newburgh and Beacon and under the Newburgh Beacon Bridge, taking in the Fishkill Creek.


title: Hudson River

text: In this area, between Gee's Point at the US Military Academy and Constitution Island, an area known as "World's End" marks the deepest part of the Hudson, at . Shortly thereafter, the river enters the Hudson Highlands between Putnam and Orange Counties, flowing between mountains such as Storm King Mountain, Breakneck Ridge, and Bear Mountain. The river narrows considerably here before flowing under the Bear Mountain Bridge, which connects Westchester and Rockland Counties.


title: Hudson River

text: Afterward, leaving the Hudson Highlands, the river enters Haverstraw Bay, the widest point of the river at wide. Shortly thereafter, the river forms the Tappan Zee and flows under the Tappan Zee Bridge, which carries the New York State Thruway between Tarrytown and Nyack in Westchester and Rockland Counties respectively. At the state line with New Jersey the west bank of the Hudson enters Bergen County. The Palisades are large, rocky cliffs along the west bank of the river; also known as Bergen Hill at their lower end in Hudson County.


title: Hudson River

text: Further south the east bank of the river becomes Yonkers and then the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. South of the confluence of the Hudson and Spuyten Duyvil Creek, the east bank of the river becomes Manhattan. The river is sometimes still called the North River at this point. The George Washington Bridge crosses the river between Fort Lee and the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.


title: Hudson River

text: The Lincoln Tunnel and the Holland Tunnel also cross under the river between Manhattan and New Jersey. South of the Battery, the river proper ends, meeting the East River to form Upper New York Bay, also known as New York Harbor. Its outflow continues through the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island, under the Verrazzano Bridge, and into Lower New York Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.


title: Hudson River

text: The lower Hudson is actually a tidal estuary, with tidal influence extending as far as the Federal Dam in Troy. There are about two high tides and two low tides per day. As the tide rises, the tidal current moves northward, taking enough time that part of the river can be at high tide while another part can be at the bottom of its low tide.


title: Hudson River

text: Strong tides make parts of New York Harbor difficult and dangerous to navigate. During the winter, ice floes may drift south or north, depending upon the tides. The Mahican name of the river represents its partially estuarine nature: "muh-he-kun-ne-tuk" means "the river that flows both ways." Due to tidal influence from the ocean extending to Troy, NY, freshwater discharge is only about per second on average. The mean fresh water discharge at the river's mouth in New York is approximately per second.


title: Hudson River

text: The Hudson River is long, with depths of for the stretch south of the Federal Dam, dredged to maintain the river as a shipping route. Some sections there are around 160 feet deep, and the deepest part of the Hudson, known as "World's End" (between the US Military Academy and Constitution Island) has a depth of .


title: Hudson River

text: The Hudson and its tributaries, notably the Mohawk River, drain an area of , the Hudson River Watershed. It covers much of New York, as well as parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont.


title: Hudson River

text: Parts of the Hudson River form coves, such as Weehawken Cove in the towns of Hoboken and Weehawken in New Jersey.


title: Hudson River

text: New York Harbor, between the Narrows and the George Washington Bridge, has a mix of fresh and ocean water, mixed by wind and tides to create an increasing gradient of salinity from the river's top to its bottom. This varies with season, weather, variation of water circulation, and other factors; snowmelt at winter's end increases the freshwater flow downstream.


title: Hudson River

text: The salt line of the river varies from the north in Poughkeepsie to the south at Battery Park in New York City, though it usually lies near Newburgh.


title: Hudson River

text: The Hudson is sometimes called, in geological terms, a drowned river. The rising sea levels after the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation, the most recent ice age, have resulted in a marine incursion that drowned the coastal plain and brought salt water well above the mouth of the river. The deeply eroded old riverbed beyond the current shoreline, Hudson Canyon, is a rich fishing area. The former riverbed is clearly delineated beneath the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, extending to the edge of the continental shelf. As a result of the glaciation and the rising sea levels, the lower half of the river is now a tidal estuary that occupies the Hudson Fjord. The fjord is estimated to have formed between 26,000 and 13,300 years ago.


title: Hudson River

text: Along the river, the Palisades are of metamorphic basalt, or diabases, the Highlands are primarily granite and gneiss with intrusions, and from Beacon to Albany, shales and limestones, or mainly sedimentary rock.


title: Hudson River

text: The Narrows were most likely formed about 6,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. Previously, Staten Island and Long Island were connected, preventing the Hudson River from terminating via the Narrows. At that time, the Hudson River emptied into the Atlantic Ocean through a more westerly course through parts of present-day northern New Jersey, along the eastern side of the Watchung Mountains to Bound Brook, New Jersey and then on into the Atlantic Ocean via Raritan Bay. A buildup of water in the Upper New York Bay eventually allowed the Hudson River to break through previous land mass that was connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn to form the Narrows as it exists today. This allowed the Hudson River to find a shorter route to the Atlantic Ocean via its present course between New Jersey and New York City.


title: Hudson River

text: Suspended sediments, mainly consisting of clays eroded from glacial deposits and organic particles, can be found in abundance in the river. The Hudson has a relatively short history of erosion, so it does not have a large depositional plain near its mouth. This lack of significant deposits near the river mouth differs from most other American estuaries. Around New York Harbor, sediment also flows into the estuary from the ocean when the current is flowing north.


title: Hudson River

text: The area around Hudson River was inhabited by indigenous peoples ages before Europeans arrived. The Lenape, Wappinger, and Mahican branches of the Algonquians lived along the river, mostly in peace with the other groups. The Algonquians in the region mainly lived in small clans and villages throughout the area. One major settlement was called Navish, which was located at Croton Point, overlooking the Hudson River. Other settlements were located in various locations throughout the Hudson Highlands. Many villagers lived in various types of houses, which the Algonquians called wigwams, though large families often lived in longhouses that could be a hundred feet long.


title: Hudson River

text: At the associated villages, they grew corn, beans, and squash. They also gathered other types of plant foods, such as hickory nuts and many other wild fruits and tubers. In addition to agriculture, the Algonquians also fished in the Hudson River, focusing on various species of freshwater fish, as well as various variations of striped bass, American eels, sturgeon, herring, and shad. Oyster beds were also common on the river floor, which provided an extra source of nutrition. Land hunting consisted of turkey, deer, bear, and other animals.


title: Hudson River

text: The lower Hudson River was inhabited by the Lenape, while further north, the Wappingers lived from Manhattan Island up to Poughkeepsie. They traded with both the Lenape to the south and the Mahicans to the north. The Mahicans lived in the northern part of the valley from present-day Kingston to Lake Champlain, with their capital located near present-day Albany.


title: Hudson River

text: John Cabot is credited for the Old World's discovery of continental North America, with his journey in 1497 along the continent's coast. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed north along the Atlantic seaboard and into New York Harbor, however he left the harbor shortly thereafter, without navigating into the Hudson River. In 1598, Dutch men employed by the Greenland Company wintered in New York Bay.


title: Hudson River

text: In 1609 the Dutch East India Company financed English navigator Henry Hudson in his search for the Northwest Passage. During the search, Hudson sailed up the river that would later be named after him. His travel up the ever-widening river led as far as present-day Albany, before Hudson concluded that no such strait existed there.


title: Hudson River

text: The Dutch subsequently began to colonize the region, establishing the colony of New Netherland, including three major fur-trading outposts: New Amsterdam, Wiltwyck, and Fort Orange. New Amsterdam was founded at the mouth of the Hudson River, and would later become known as New York City. Wiltwyck was founded roughly halfway up the Hudson River, and would later become Kingston. Fort Orange was founded on the river north of Wiltwyck, and later became known as Albany.


title: Hudson River

text: The Dutch West India Company operated a monopoly on the region for roughly twenty years before other businessmen were allowed to set up their own ventures in the colony. In 1647, Director-General Peter Stuyvesant took over management of the colony, and surrendered it in 1664 to the British, who had invaded the largely-defenseless New Amsterdam. New Amsterdam and the colony of New Netherland were renamed New York, after the Duke of York.


title: Hudson River

text: Under British colonial rule, the Hudson Valley became an agricultural hub. Manors were developed on the east side of the river, and the west side contained many smaller and independent farms. In 1754, the Albany Plan of Union was created at Albany City Hall on the Hudson. The plan allowed the colonies to treaty with the Iroquois and provided a framework for the Continental Congress.


title: Hudson River

text: During the American Revolutionary War, the British realized that the river's proximity to Lake George and Lake Champlain would allow their navy to control the water route from Montreal to New York City. British general John Burgoyne planned the Saratoga campaign, to control the river and therefore cut off the patriot hub of New England (to the river's east) from the South and Mid-Atlantic regions to the river's west. The action would allow the British to focus on rallying the support of loyalists in the southerly states. As a result, numerous battles were fought along the river and in nearby waterways. These include the Battle of Long Island, in August 1776 and the Battle of Harlem Heights the following month. Later that year, the British and Continental Armies were involved in skirmishes and battles in rivertowns of the Hudson in Westchester County, culminating in the Battle of White Plains.


title: Hudson River

text: Also in late 1776, New England militias fortified the river's choke point known as the Hudson Highlands, which included building Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery on either side of the Hudson and a metal chain between the two. In 1777, Washington expected the British would attempt to control the Hudson River, however they instead conquered Philadelphia, and left a smaller force in New York City, with permission to strike the Hudson Valley at any time. The British attacked on October 5, 1777, in the Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery by sailing up the Hudson River, looting the village of Peekskill and capturing the two forts. In 1778, the Continentals constructed the Great West Point Chain in order to prevent another British fleet from sailing up the Hudson.


title: Hudson River

text: Hudson River School paintings reflect the themes of discovery, exploration, and settlement in America in the mid-19th century. The detailed and idealized paintings also typically depict a pastoral setting. The works often juxtapose peaceful agriculture and the remaining wilderness, which was fast disappearing from the Hudson Valley just as it was coming to be appreciated for its qualities of ruggedness and sublimity. The school characterizes the artistic body, its New York location, its landscape subject matter, and often its subject, the Hudson River.


title: Hudson River

text: In general, Hudson River School artists believed that nature in the form of the American landscape was an ineffable manifestation of God, though the artists varied in the depth of their religious conviction. Their reverence for America's natural beauty was shared with contemporary American writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The artist Thomas Cole is generally acknowledged as the founder of the Hudson River School, his work first being reviewed in 1825, while painters Frederic Edwin Church and Albert Bierstadt were the most successful painters of the school.


title: Hudson River

text: At the beginning of the 19th century, transportation from the US east coast into the mainland was difficult. Ships were the fastest vehicles at the time, as trains were still being developed and automobiles were roughly a century away. In order to facilitate shipping throughout the country's interior, numerous canals were constructed between internal bodies of water in the 1800s. One of the most significant canals of this era was the Erie Canal. The canal was built to link the Midwest to the Port of New York, a significant seaport during that time, by way of the Great Lakes, the canal, the Mohawk River, and the Hudson River.


title: Hudson River

text: The completion of the canal enhanced the development of the American West, allowing settlers to travel west, send goods to markets in frontier cities, and export goods via the Hudson River and New York City. The completion of the canal made New York City one of the most vital ports in the nation, surpassing the Port of Philadelphia and ports in Massachusetts. After the completion of the Erie Canal, smaller canals were built to connect it with the new system. The Champlain Canal was built to connect the Hudson River near Troy to the southern end of Lake Champlain. This canal allowed boaters to travel from the St. Lawrence Seaway, and then British cities such as Montreal to the Hudson River and New York City.


title: Hudson River

text: Another major canal was the Oswego Canal, which connected the Erie Canal to Oswego and Lake Ontario, and could be used to bypass Niagara Falls. The Cayuga-Seneca Canal connected the Erie Canal to Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake. Farther south, the Delaware and Hudson Canal was built between the Delaware River at Honesdale, Pennsylvania, and the Hudson River at Kingston, New York. This canal enabled the transportation of coal, and later other goods as well, between the Delaware and Hudson River watersheds. The combination of these canals made the Hudson River one of the most vital waterways for trade in the nation.


title: Hudson River

text: During the Industrial Revolution, the Hudson River became a major location for production, especially around Albany and Troy. The river allowed for fast and easy transport of goods from the interior of the Northeast to the coast. Hundreds of factories were built around the Hudson, in towns including Poughkeepise, Newburgh, Kingston, and Hudson. The North Tarrytown Assembly (later owned by General Motors), on the river in Sleepy Hollow, was a large and notable example. The River links to the Erie Canal and Great Lakes, allowing manufacturing in the Midwest, including automobiles in Detroit, to use the river for transport. With industrialization came new technologies for transport, including steamboats for faster transport. In 1807, the "North River Steamboat" (later known as Clermont), became the first commercially successful steamboat. It carried passengers between New York City and Albany along the Hudson River.


title: Hudson River

text: The Hudson River valley also proved to be a good area for railroads. The Hudson River Railroad was established in 1849 on the east side of the river as a way to bring passengers from New York City to Albany. The line was built as an alternative to the New York and Harlem Railroad for travel to Albany, and as a way to ease the concerns of cities along the river. The railroad was also used for commuting to New York City. Further north, the Livingston Avenue Bridge was opened in 1866 as a way to connect the Hudson River Railroad with the New York Central Railroad, which goes west to Buffalo. Smaller railroads existed north of this point. On the west side of the Hudson River, the West Shore Railroad opened to run passenger service from Weehawken, New Jersey to Albany, and then Buffalo. In 1889, the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge opened for rail service between Poughkeepsie and the west side of the river.


title: Hudson River

text: Starting in the 20th century, the technological requirements needed to build large crossings across the river were met. This was especially important by New York City, as the river is fairly wide at that point. In 1927, the Holland Tunnel opened between New Jersey and Lower Manhattan. The tunnel was the longest underwater tunnel in the world at the time, and used an advanced system to ventilate the tunnels and prevent the build-up of carbon monoxide. The original upper level of the George Washington Bridge and the first tube of the Lincoln Tunnel followed in the 1930s. Both crossings were later expanded to accommodate extra traffic: the Lincoln Tunnel in the 1940s and 1950s, and the George Washington Bridge in the 1960s. In 1955, the original Tappan Zee Bridge was built over one of the widest parts of the river, from Tarrytown to Nyack.


title: Hudson River

text: The late 20th century saw a decline in industrial production in the Hudson Valley. In 1993, IBM closed two of its plants, in East Fishkill and Kingston, due to the company's loss of $16 billion over the previous three years. The plant in East Fishkill had 16,300 workers at its peak in 1984, and had opened in 1941 originally as part of the war effort. In 1996, the North Tarrytown plant of General Motors (GM) closed. In response to the plant closures, towns throughout the region sought to make the region attractive for technology companies. IBM maintained a mainframe unit at its Poughkeepsie plant, and newer housing and office developments were built near there as well. Commuting from Poughkeepsie to New York City also increased. Developers also looked to build on the property of the old GM plant.


title: Hudson River

text: Around the time of the last factories' closing, environmental efforts to clean up the river progressed. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered General Electric (GE), which had polluted a 200-mile stretch of the river, to remove PCBs from the site of its old factory in Hudson Falls, as well as to remove millions of cubic yards of contaminated sediment from the river bottom. EPA's cleanup order was issued pursuant to the agency's designation of the polluted segment of the river as a Superfund site. Other conservation efforts also occurred, such as when Christopher Swain became the first person to swim all 315 miles of the Hudson River in support of cleaning it up.


title: Hudson River

text: In conjunction with conservation efforts, the Hudson River region has seen an economic revitalization, especially in favor of green development. In 2009, the High Line was opened in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. This linear park has views of the river throughout its length. Also in 2009, the original Poughkeepsie railroad bridge, since abandoned, was converted into the Walkway Over the Hudson, a pedestrian park over the river. Emblematic of the increase in green development in the region, waterfront parks in cities like Kingston, Poughkeepsie, and Beacon were built, and several festivals are held annually.


title: Hudson River

text: Numerous places have been constructed along the Hudson that have since become landmarks. Following the river from its source to mouth, there is the Hudson River Islands State Park in Greene and Columbia counties, and in Dutchess County, there is Bard College, Staatsburgh, the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site, Franklin D. Roosevelt's home and presidential library, and the main campus of the Culinary Institute of America, Marist College, the Walkway over the Hudson, Bannerman's Castle, and Hudson Highlands State Park. South of that in Orange County is the United States Military Academy. In Westchester lies Indian Point Energy Center, Croton Point Park, and Sing Sing Correctional Facility.


title: Hudson River

text: In New Jersey is Stevens Institute of Technology and Liberty State Park. In Manhattan is Fort Tryon Park with the Cloisters, and the World Trade Center. Ellis Island, partially belonging to both the states of New Jersey and New York, is located just south of the river's mouth in New York Harbor. The Statue of Liberty, located on Liberty Island, is located a bit further south of there.


title: Hudson River

text: A stretch on the east bank of the Hudson has been designated the Hudson River Historic District, a National Historic Landmark. The Palisades Interstate Park Commission protects the Palisades on the west bank of the river. The Hudson River was designated as an American Heritage River in 1997. The Hudson River estuary system is part of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System as the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve.


title: Hudson River

text: The Hudson River is navigable by large steamers up to Troy, and by ocean-faring vessels to the Port of Albany. The original Erie Canal, opened in 1825 to connect the Hudson with Lake Erie, emptied into the Hudson at the Albany Basin, just south of the Federal Dam in Troy (at mile 134). The canal enabled shipping between cities on the Great Lakes and Europe via the Atlantic Ocean. The New York State Canal System, the successor to the Erie Canal, runs into the Hudson River north of Troy. It also uses the Federal Dam as a lock.


title: Hudson River

text: Along the east side of the river runs the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line, from Manhattan to Poughkeepsie. The tracks continue north of Poughkeepsie as Amtrak trains run further north to Albany. On the west side of the river, CSX Transportation operates a freight rail line between North Bergen Yard in North Bergen, New Jersey and Selkirk Yard in Selkirk, New York.


title: Hudson River

text: The Hudson is crossed at numerous points by bridges, tunnels, and ferries. The width of the Lower Hudson River required major feats of engineering to cross; the results are today visible in the George Washington Bridge and the 1955 Tappan Zee Bridge (replaced by the New Tappan Zee Bridge) as well as the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and the PATH and Pennsylvania Railroad tubes. The George Washington Bridge, which carries multiple highways, connects Fort Lee, New Jersey to the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, and is the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge.


title: Hudson River

text: The new Tappan Zee Bridge is the longest in New York, although the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge has a larger main span. The Troy Union Bridge between Waterford and Troy was the first bridge over the Hudson; built in 1804 and destroyed in 1909; its replacement, the Troy–Waterford Bridge, was built in 1909. The Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad was chartered in 1832 and opened in 1835, including the Green Island Bridge, the second bridge over the Hudson south of the Federal Dam.


title: Hudson River

text: The Hudson River's sediments contain a significant array of pollutants, accumulated over decades from industrial waste discharges, sewage treatment plants, and urban runoff. Water quality in the river has greatly improved since implementation of the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA). As of 2020, the concentrations of toxic pollutants in fish and crabs are lower compared to measurements taken in previous decades, but fishing restrictions and health warnings remain in effect.


title: Hudson River

text: The most significant pollution of the Hudson River was contamination of the river by General Electric (GE) with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) between 1947 and 1977. These chemicals caused a range of harmful effects to wildlife and people who ate fish from the river. Other kinds of pollution, including mercury contamination and discharges of partially-treated sewage, have also caused ecological problems in the river.


title: Hudson River

text: In response to the widespread contamination of the river, activists protested in various ways. A group of fishermen formed an organization in 1966 that would later become Riverkeeper, the first member of the Waterkeeper Alliance. Musician Pete Seeger founded the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater and the Clearwater Festival to draw attention to the problem.


title: Hudson River

text: Environmental activism in New York and across the country, and increased attention from members of Congress led to passage of the CWA in 1972. Extensive remediation actions on the river began in the 1970s with the issuance and enforcement of CWA wastewater discharge permits and consequent control or reduction of discharges from industrial facilities and municipal sewage treatment plants.


title: Hudson River

text: In 1984, EPA declared a 200-mile (320 km) stretch of the river, from Hudson Falls to New York City, as a Superfund site requiring cleanup, one of the largest such site designations in the country. Sediment removal operations by GE, pursuant to the Superfund orders, have continued into the 21st century.


title: Hudson River

text: Zooplankton are abundant throughout both fresh and saltwater portions of the river, and provide a crucial food source for larval and juvenile fish.


title: Hudson River

text: The benthic zone has species capable of living in soft bottom habitats. Within freshwater regions, there are animal species including larvae of chironomid flies, oligochaete worms, predatory fly larvae, and amphipods. In saline regions, there are abundant polychaete annelids, amphipods, and some mollusks such as clams. These species burrow in the sediment and accelerate the breakdown of organic matter. Atlantic blue crabs are among the larger invertebrates, at the northern limit of their range.


title: Hudson River

text: The entire Hudson was once far more populated with native suspension-feeding bivalves. Freshwater mussels were common in the river's limnetic zone, but populations have been decreasing for decades, probably from altered habitats and the invasive zebra mussel. Oyster beds were once pervasive in the saltwater portion, but are now reduced through pollution and exploitation.


title: Hudson River

text: According to the NYSDEC Hudson River Estuary Program, about 220 species of fish, including 173 native species, currently are found in the Hudson River. Commercial fishing was once prominent in the river, although most were shut down in 1976 due to pollution; few survive today. American shad are the only finfish harvested for profit, though in limited numbers.


title: Hudson River

text: Species include striped bass, the most important game fish in the Hudson. Estimates of the striped bass population in the Hudson range to nearly 100 million fish. American eels also live in the river before reaching breeding age; for much of this stage they are known as glass eels because of the transparency of their bodies. The fish are the only catadromous species in the Hudson's estuary.


title: Hudson River

text: The Atlantic tomcod is a unique species that adapted resistance to the toxic effects of the PCBs polluting the river. Scientists identified the genetic mutation that conferred the resistance, and found that the mutated form was present in 99 percent of the tomcods in the river, compared to fewer than 10 percent of the tomcods from other waters. The hogchoker flatfish have been historically abundant in the river, where farmers would use them for inexpensive livestock feed, giving the fish its name. Other unusual fish found in the river include the northern pipefish, the lined seahorse, and the northern puffer.


title: Hudson River

text: The Atlantic sturgeon, a species about 120 million years old, enter the estuary during their annual migrations. The fish grow to a considerable size, up to and . The fish are the symbol of the Hudson River Estuary. Their smoked flesh was commonly eaten in the river valley since 1779, and it was sometimes known as "Albany beef". The city of Albany was called "Sturgeondom" or "Sturgeontown" in the 1850s and 1860s, with its residents known as "Sturgeonites". The "Sturgeondom" name lost popularity around 1900. The fish have been off limits from fishing since 1998. The river's population of shortnose sturgeon have quadrupled since the 1970s, and are also off limits to all fishing as they are a federally endangered species.


title: Hudson River

text: Lined seahorse or northern seahorse ("Hippocampus erectus") is found in the brackish waters of the Lower New York Bay, New York Harbor and surrounding waters (including Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook Bay) and the Hudson River estuary.


title: Hudson River

text: Marine life is known to exist in the estuary, with seals, crabs, and some whales reported. On March 29, 1647, a white whale swam up the river to the Rensselaerswyck (near Albany). Herman Melville, author of "Moby-Dick", lived in and near Albany from 1830 to 1847, and was known to have ancestry from New Netherland, leading some to believe stories of the whale sighting inspired his novel.


title: Hudson River

text: Non-native species often originate in New York Harbor, a center of long-distance commerce. Over 100 foreign species reside in the river and its banks. Many of these have had significant effects on the ecosystem and natural habitats. The water chestnut produces a vegetative mat that reduces oxygen content in the water below, enhances sedimentation, impedes small vessel navigation, and is a hazard to swimmers and walkers. The zebra mussel arrived in the Hudson in 1989 and has spread through the river's freshwater region, reducing photoplankton and river oxygen levels. Positively, the mussel clears suspended particles, allowing for more light to aquatic vegetation. In saltwater areas, the green crab spread in the early 20th century and the Japanese shore crab has become dominant in recent years.


title: Hudson River

text: The Hudson has a diverse array of habitat types. Most of the river consists of deep water habitats, though its tidal wetlands of freshwater and salt marshes are among the most ecologically important. There is strong biological diversity, including intertidal vegetation like freshwater cattails and saltwater cordgrasses. Shallow coves and bays are often covered with submarine vegetation; shallower areas harbor diverse benthic fauna. Abundance of food varies over location and time, stemming from seasonal flows of nutrients. The Hudson's large volume of suspended sediments reduces light penetration in the area's water column, which reduces photoplankton photosynthesis and prevents sub-aquatic vegetation from growing beyond shallow depths. The oxygen-producing phytoplankton have also been inhibited by the relatively recent invasion of the zebra mussel species.


title: Hudson River

text: The Hudson River estuary is the site of wetlands from New York City all the way up to Troy. It has one of the largest concentrations of freshwater wetlands in the Northeast. Even though the river can be considered brackish further south, 80 percent of the wetlands are outside the influence of the saltwater coming from the Atlantic Ocean. Currently, the river has about acres of wetlands, and rising sea levels due to climate change are expected to lead to an expansion of that area. Wetlands are expected to migrate upland as sea level (and thus the level of the river) rises. This is different from the rest of the world, where rising sea levels usually leads to a reduction in wetland areas. The expansion of the wetlands are expected to provide more habitat to the fish and birds of the region.


title: Hudson River

text: Parkland surrounds much of the Hudson River; prominent parks include Battery Park and Liberty State Park at the river's mouth, Riverside Park in Manhattan, Croton Point Park, Bear Mountain State Park, Storm King State Park and the Hudson Highlands, Moreau Lake State Park, and its source in the High Peaks Wilderness Area.


title: Hudson River

text: The New Tappan Zee Bridge between Westchester and Rockland counties has a pedestrian and bicycling path covering a distance of about 3.6 miles. Another pedestrian and bike path exists further north, between Dutchess and Ulster Counties: Walkway Over the Hudson, which has a one-way length of 1.2 miles.


title: Hudson River

text: Fishing is allowed in the river, although the state Department of Health recommends eating no fish caught from the South Glens Falls Dam to the Federal Dam at Troy. Women under 50 and children under 15 are not advised to eat any fish caught south of the Palmer Falls Dam in Corinth, while others are advised to eat anywhere from one to four meals per month of Hudson River fish, depending on species and location caught. The Department of Health cites mercury, PCBs, dioxin, and cadmium as the chemicals impacting fish in these areas.


title: Hudson River

text: Common native species recreationally fished include striped bass (formerly a major commercial species, now only legally taken by anglers), channel catfish, white catfish, brown bullhead, yellow perch, and white perch. The nonnative largemouth and smallmouth bass are also popular, and serve as the focus of catch-and-release fishing tournaments.


title: Risk (game)

text: Risk is a strategy board game of diplomacy, conflict and conquest for two to six players. The standard version is played on a board depicting a political map of the world, divided into forty-two territories, which are grouped into six continents. Turns rotate among players who control armies of playing pieces with which they attempt to capture territories from other players, with results determined by dice rolls. Players may form and dissolve alliances during the course of the game. The goal of the game is to occupy every territory on the board and, in doing so, eliminate the other players. The game can be lengthy, requiring several hours to multiple days to finish. European versions are structured so that each player has a limited "secret mission" objective that shortens the game.


title: Risk (game)

text: "Risk" was invented in 1957 by Albert Lamorisse, a French filmmaker, and it became one of the most popular board games in history, inspiring other popular games such as "Axis & Allies" and "Settlers of Catan". The simple rules but complex interactions make it appealing to adults, children, and families. It is still in production by Hasbro with numerous editions and variants with popular media themes and different rules, including PC software versions, video games, and mobile apps.


title: Risk (game)

text: "Risk" was invented by French film director Albert Lamorisse and originally released in 1957 as "La Conquête du Monde" ("The Conquest of the World") in France. It was bought by Parker Brothers and released in 1959 with some modifications to the rules as "Risk: The Continental Game", then as "Risk: The Game of Global Domination".


title: Risk (game)

text: The first new version of "Risk" was released in 1986. Called "Castle Risk", it featured a map depicting 18th-century European castles instead of a map of the world, and it was a financial disappointment. In 1993, the rules for "Secret Mission Risk", which had been the standard in Europe, were added to the United States edition. After a limited special-edition release in 1999, in France, called "Risk: Édition Napoléon" in commemoration of 200th anniversary of the Napoleonic era (1799-1815), a new edition called "Risk: 2210 A.D." was published in 2001 by Hasbro's Avalon Hill division. The game was futuristic-themed, featuring moon territories, ocean territories and commander units and offered a number of expansions. Starting in 2002, "Risk" versions themed around media franchises such as "The Lord of the Rings", "Star Wars", and "Transformers" were released, sometimes with as many as six editions per year. A collector's edition of classic "Risk" in a bookshelf-format wooden box was issued in 2005 as part of the Parker Brothers Vintage Game series, distributed through Target Stores. In 2008, Winning Moves, a Hasbro licensee, introduced "1959 Risk", a reproduction of the original Parker Brothers version with original artwork, wooden playing pieces and rules. Many themed versions are currently being published, and new themes continue to be introduced.


title: Risk (game)

text: In the first editions, the playing pieces were wooden cubes (one set each of black, blue, green, pink, red and yellow) representing one troop each and a few rounded triangular prisms representing ten troops each, but in later versions of the game these pieces were molded of plastic to reduce costs. In the 1980s, these were changed to pieces shaped into the Roman numerals I, III, V, and X. The 1993 edition introduced plastic infantry tokens (representing a single unit), cavalry (representing five units), and artillery (representing ten units). The 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition contained the same troop pieces but made of metal rather than plastic. In the 2005 "bookcase" edition, playing pieces are once again wooden cubes.


title: Risk (game)

text: Equipment includes a large tabletop board depicting a political map of the world, divided into forty-two territories, which are grouped into six continents by color. In addition to shared boundaries between territories which define routes of attack/defense, numerous special trans-oceanic or trans-sea routes are also marked; for example, the route between North Africa and Brazil. The oceans and seas are not part of the playing field.


title: Risk (game)

text: Each "Risk" game comes with a number of sets (either 5 or 6) of different colored tokens denoting troops. A few different or larger tokens represent multiple (usually 5 or 10) troops. These token types are purely a convention for ease of representing a specific army size. If a player runs out of army pieces during the game, pieces of another color or other symbolic tokens (coins, pieces from other games, etc.) may be substituted to help keep track of armies.


title: Risk (game)

text: Also included is a deck of "Risk" cards, comprising forty-two territory cards, two wild cards, and twelve or twenty-eight mission cards. The territory cards correspond to the 42 territories on the playing board. Each of the territory cards also depicts a symbol of an infantry, cavalry, or artillery piece. One of these cards is awarded to a player at the end of each turn if the player has successfully conquered at least one territory during that turn. No more than one card may be awarded per turn. If a player collects either three cards with the same symbol, or one of each, or two different and a wild card, they may be traded in for reinforcements at the beginning of a player's turn. These cards can also be used for game set-up. The two wild cards depict infantry, cavalry and artillery pieces. Because these cards have all three symbols, they can match with any two other cards to form a set. The mission cards each specifying some secret mission (something less than 'conquer the world') are used in the "Secret Mission Risk" rule variant.


title: Risk (game)

text: Standard equipment also includes five or six dice in two colors: three red dice for the attacker, and two or three white or blue dice for the defender. There is also a Golden Cavalry piece used to mark the progressive turn-in value of matched sets of territory cards.


title: Risk (game)

text: In 2022, the iconic Risk logo undertook a rebranding conducted by Toronto-based creative and design agency Quake.


title: Risk (game)

text: The following is a typical layout of the "Risk" game board, with a table of the corresponding continent and territory names. Each territory on the typical "Risk" game board represents a real-life geographical or political region. As such, the territory borders are drawn to resemble the geography of those regions. This provides an interior space on which to place the army units, adds an element of realism to the game, and also adds complexity. Most of the territories represent a combination of countries or states; some that have names of single countries or states, such as Argentina, do not represent the boundaries of the real-life entity. Antarctica, the Caribbean, New Zealand, and the Philippines are not represented.


title: Risk (game)

text: The numbers in parentheses represent the number of additional armies granted during the reinforcement stage of a player's turn who controls all of the territories in that continent. Some versions of the board use alternative names for some territories. These names are in parentheses. Not all variations occur concurrently.


title: Risk (game)

text: Setup consists of determining order of play, issuing armies to players, and allocating the territories on the


title: Risk (game)

text: At the beginning of a player's turn, they receive reinforcement armies proportional to the number of territories


title: Risk (game)

text: held, bonus armies for holding whole continents, and additional armies for turning in matched sets of territory


title: Risk (game)

text: On a player's turn, after they have placed their reinforcements, they may choose to attack territories adjacent to theirs which are occupied by enemy armies. A territory is adjacent if it is connected visibly by land, or by a "sea-lane". Attacks are decided by dice rolls, with the attacker or defender losing a specified number of


title: Risk (game)

text: armies per roll. When attacking, a battle may continue until the attacker decides to stop attacking, the attacker has no more armies with which to attack, or the defender has lost their last army at the defending territory, at which point the attacker takes over the territory by moving armies onto it and draws a territory card for that turn.


title: Risk (game)

text: At the end of a player's turn, they may move armies from one of their territories to another "connected" territory.


title: Risk (game)

text: A player is eliminated from the game when they have lost their last territory. The player that defeated them receive the defeated player's territory cards, if any. The victor is the last player remaining when all other players have been eliminated.


title: Risk (game)

text: There are special rules for two-player games: the territories are divided between the two players and a neutral army


title: Risk (game)

text: during setup. In play, the neutral army only plays defense when attacked, never attacks or moves armies, and


title: Risk (game)

text: doesn't have a turn like an active player. If the neutral army is eliminated, the game continues under normal


title: Risk (game)

text: Some editions have rules variants regarding how armies or territories are allocated during setup or how armies


title: Risk (game)

text: may be moved at the end of a turn. There are also variations in the tokens representing armies that don't


title: Risk (game)

text: affect play. European editions assign each player a secret mission, and the game goes until one player


title: Risk (game)

text: completes their mission rather than conquers the world. Different editions have differing numbers of such


title: Risk (game)

text: missions. The Italian edition uses a different number of dice in battle. Themed variants have different map


title: Risk (game)

text: The rules of some editions describe a variant called "Capital Risk", where each player has a capital in one of the initially occupied territories. The player to capture all capitals wins. Any armies and territories that belong to the losing nation are turned over to the victor. Capital Risk often leads to much shorter games. Other rules variants for ""Risk" experts" are also listed.


title: Risk (game)

text: Holding continents is the most common way to increase reinforcements. Players often attempt to gain control of Australia early in the game, since Australia is the only continent that can be successfully defended by heavily fortifying one country (either Siam or Indonesia). Generally, continents with fewer access routes are easier to defend as they possess fewer territories that can be attacked by other players. South America has 2 access points, North America and Africa each have 3, Europe has 4, and Asia has 5.


title: Risk (game)

text: Generally, it is thought advisable to hold "Risk" cards until they can be turned in for maximum reinforcements. This is especially true earlier on in gameplay, because extra armies make a greater difference in the beginning of the game. Eliminating a weak player who holds a large number of "Risk" cards is also a good strategy, since players who eliminate their opponents get possession of their opponents' "Risk" cards. In this case, trading in "Risk" cards earlier may help acquire the necessary troops. If the conquering player has six or more "Risk" cards after taking the cards of another player, the cards must be immediately turned in for reinforcements until the player has fewer than five cards and then may continue attacking.


title: Risk (game)

text: "Turtling" is a defensive strategy where a player who feels vulnerable tries to become too expensive to be removed while remaining a threat to harass other players. The objective of this strategy is to avoid early defeat. A player using this strategy might remain in the game all the way to later stages and then mount an attack on the weakest player and start a chain elimination to remove one player after another to win the game. The player who uses this strategy is called a "turtle". The term was popularised in real-time strategy games where a player creates a defensive perimeter or a "turtle shell" around the base of operations. Solutions to counteract this strategy using cooperation have been proposed.


title: Risk (game)

text: The rules of "Risk" neither endorse nor prohibit alliances or truces. Thus players often form unofficial treaties for various reasons, such as safeguarding themselves from attacks on one border while they concentrate their forces elsewhere, or eliminating a player who has grown too strong. Because these agreements are not enforceable by the rules, these agreements are often broken. Alliance making/breaking can be one of the most important elements of the game, and it adds human interaction to a decidedly probabilistic game. Some players allow trading of "Risk" cards, but only during their turn. This optional rule can make alliances more powerful.


title: Risk (game)

text: Capturing a territory depends on the number of attacking and defending armies and the associated probabilities. In a battle to completion, a player who has more armies (even just one more) has a significant advantage, whether on attack or defense (the number of attacking armies does not include the minimum one army that must be left behind in the territory).


title: Risk (game)

text: Defenders always win ties when dice are rolled. This gives the defending player the advantage in "one-on-one" fights, but the attacker's ability to use more dice offsets this advantage. It is always advantageous to roll the maximum number of dice, unless an attacker wishes to avoid moving men into a 'dead-end' territory, in which case they may choose to roll fewer than three. Thus when rolling three dice against two, three against one, or two against one, the attacker has a slight advantage, otherwise the defender has an advantage.


title: Risk (game)

text: There are online tools available to compute the outcome of whole campaigns (i.e. the attacking of several territories in a row).


title: Risk (game)

text: "RisiKo!" is a variant of the game released in Italy, in which the defender is allowed to roll up to three dice to defend. This variation dramatically shifts the balance of power towards defense.


title: Risk (game)

text: In addition to the original version of 1959, and a "40th Anniversary Edition" with metal pieces, a number of official variants of "Risk" have been released over the years. In recent years, Hasbro has predominantly based its "Risk" variants on popular films. In chronological order, the variations of "Risk" that have been released are:


title: Risk (game)

text: Many of the official versions of Risk listed above have their own rules which may differ slightly or even significantly from the original game of Risk.


title: Risk (game)

text: Many variants have been published by other groups or companies, that are based on the original concept of the game of "Risk" and that contain much of the functionality of the original, but are not licensed by Hasbro, such as the video games "Global Domination" and "Lux". Known as "Risk" clones, such variants have names not containing the term ""Risk"" to avoid legal issues. Some of these clones are available commercially, of which many have been released through the iTunes App Store, especially for the iPad. Several other "Risk" clones are distributed freely over the Internet, such as "Dice Wars". Games such as "Nintendo Wars" can be seen as a complex evolution which still holds some elements from "Risk". "NarcoGuerra" is a newsgame based on the basic "Risk" rules, played out over a map of Mexico with the intent of educating people on the Mexican Drug War. An example of a board game inspired by "Risk" is the Argentine "TEG".


title: Risk (game)

text: In addition to "Risk" clones, third-party products have been created which slightly modify traditional gameplay. Among the most popular third-party editions are virtual dice-rolling simulators. These can act as virtual replacements to traditional dice or be used to automatically simulate the results of large battles between territories—significantly speeding up gameplay.


title: Risk (game)

text: Several video game versions of "Risk" have been released as "Risk", starting with the Commodore 64 edition in 1988 and the Macintosh edition in 1989. Various other editions have been released for PC, Amiga, Sega Genesis, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo Switch. In 1996 Hasbro Interactive released a PC version of "Risk" that included a new variation on the game called "Ultimate Risk", which did not use dice but rather implemented the use of forts, generals, and complex battle strategies. "Risk II" for PC and Mac was released as a 2000 video game which includes classic "Risk" as well as board and gameplay variations. In 2010, Pogo.com added a licensed version of "Risk" to its library of online games. An Xbox Live Arcade version of "Risk" called "" was released on June 23, 2010. It includes classic "Risk" as well as a factions mode where players can play as Zombies, Robots, Cats, Soldiers, or Yetis.


title: Risk (game)

text: As of August 6, 2014, Hasbro and Ubisoft have announced a new "Risk" game to be released in 2014, on PS4 and Xbox One, as well as Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game, developed by Zoë Mode and published by Ubisoft, was released in February 2015. It was subsequently ported to the Nintendo Switch, releasing on October 30, 2018.


title: Risk (game)

text: A licensed iOS app, "Risk: The Official Game", developed for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad by Electronic Arts, was released on July 16, 2010. Although the iPad version ("Risk" HD) has to be bought separately from the iPhone version ("Risk"), local link up allows games to take place across versions. A maximum of six players can participate. If only one iOS device is available, the "pass and play" mode allows several players to take part in a multi-player game.


title: Risk (game)

text: A licensed version of the game is also available for Android devices and PC on Steam which includes online play, device sharing, cross-play multiplayer and single player versus computer modes.


title: Risk (game)

text: On January 11, 2021, it was reported that a television series adaptation of the game is in development from "House of Cards" creator, Beau Willimon.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest number of confirmed cases in the world (after the United States of America) with reported cases of COVID-19 infection and the third-highest number of COVID-19 deaths (after the United States and Brazil) at deaths. In May 2022, the World Health Organization estimated 4.7 million excess deaths, both directly and indirectly related to COVID-19 to have taken place in India.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The first cases of COVID-19 in India were reported on 30 January 2020 in three towns of Kerala, among three Indian medical students who had returned from Wuhan, the epicenter of the pandemic. Lockdowns were announced in Kerala on 23 March, and in the rest of the country on 25 March. Infection rates started to drop in September. Daily cases peaked mid-September with over 90,000 cases reported per-day, dropping to below 15,000 in January 2021. A second wave beginning in March 2021 was much more devastating than the first, with shortages of vaccines, hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and other medical supplies in parts of the country. By late April, India led the world in new and active cases. On 30 April 2021, it became the first country to report over 400,000 new cases in a 24-hour period. Experts stated that the virus "may" reach an endemic stage in India rather than completely disappear; in late August 2021, Soumya Swaminathan said India may be in some stage of endemicity where the country learns to live with the virus. By 23 December 2021, India had 78,190 active cases which was lowest in 573 days. This number fell to 21,530 in March 2022.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: India began its vaccination programme on 16 January 2021 with AstraZeneca vaccine (Covishield) and the indigenous Covaxin. Later, Sputnik V and the Moderna vaccine was approved for emergency use too. On January 30, 2022, India announced that it administered about 1.7 billion doses of vaccines and more than 720 million people were fully vaccinated.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: On 12 January 2020, the WHO confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan, Hubei, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: On 30 January 2020, India reported its first case of COVID-19 in Thrissur, Kerala, which rose to three cases by 3 February 2020; all were students returning from Wuhan. Apart from these, no significant rise in transmissions was observed in February. On 4 March 22 new cases were reported, including 14 infected members of an Italian tourist group. Transmissions increased over the month after several people with travel history to affected countries, and their contacts, tested positive. On 12 March, a 76-year-old man, with a travel history to Saudi Arabia, became the first COVID-19 fatality of India.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: A Sikh preacher, who had a travel history to Italy and Germany, turned into a superspreader by attending a Sikh festival in Anandpur Sahib during 10–12 March. Over 40,000 people in 20 villages in Punjab were quarantined on 27 March to contain the spread. On 31 March, a Tablighi Jamaat religious congregation event in Delhi, which had taken place earlier in March, emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot. On 2 May, around 4,000 stranded pilgrims returned from Hazur Sahib in Nanded, Maharashtra to Punjab. Many of them tested positive, including 27 bus drivers and conductors who had been part of the transport arrangement.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: In July 2020, it was estimated based on antibody tests that at least 57% of the inhabitants of Mumbai's slums may have been infected with COVID-19 at some point.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: A government panel on COVID-19 stated in October 2020 that the pandemic had peaked in India, and could come under control by February 2021. This prediction was based on a mathematical simulation referred to as the "Indian Supermodel", assuming that India reaches herd immunity. That month, a new SARS-CoV-2 variant, Lineage B.1.617, was detected in the country.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: India began its vaccination programme on 16 January 2021. On 19 January 2021, nearly a year after the first reported case in the country, Lakshadweep became the last region of India to report its first case. By February 2021, daily cases had fallen to 9,000 per-day. However, by early-April 2021, a major "second wave" of infections took hold in the country with destructive consequences; on 9 April, India surpassed 1 million active cases, and by 12 April, India overtook Brazil as having the second-most COVID-19 cases worldwide. By late April, India passed 2.5 million active cases and was reporting an average of 300,000 new cases and 2,000 deaths per-day. Some analysts feared this was an undercount. On 30 April, India reported over 400,000 new cases and over 3,500 deaths in one day.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: Multiple factors have been proposed to have potentially contributed to the sudden spike in cases, including highly-infectious variants of concern such as Lineage B.1.617, a lack of preparations as temporary hospitals were often dismantled after cases started to decline, and new facilities were not built, and health and safety precautions being poorly-implemented or enforced during weddings, festivals (such as Holi on 29 March, and the Haridwar Kumbh Mela which was linked to at least 1,700 positive cases between 10 and 14 April including cases in Hindu seers), sporting events (such as IPL), state and local elections in which politicians and activists have held in several states, and in public places. An economic slowdown put pressure on the government to lift restrictions, and there had been a feeling of exceptionalism based on the hope that India's young population and childhood immunisation scheme would blunt the impact of the virus. Models may have underestimated projected cases and deaths due to the under-reporting of cases in the country.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: Due to high demand, the vaccination programme began to be hit with supply issues; exports of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine were suspended to meet domestic demand, there have been shortages of the raw materials required to manufacture vaccines domestically, while hesitancy and a lack of knowledge among poorer, rural communities has also impacted the programme.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The second wave placed a major strain on the healthcare system, including a shortage of liquid medical oxygen due to ignored warnings which began in the first wave itself, logistic issues, and a lack of cryogenic tankers. On 23 April, Modi met via videoconference with liquid oxygen suppliers including Reliance, SAIL, JSW, Tata Steel, JSPL, AMNS, LINDE, INOX Air Products and Air Water Jamshedpur, where he acknowledged the need to "provide solutions in a very short time", and acknowledged efforts such as increases in production, and the use of rail, and air transport to deliver oxygen supplies. A large number of new oxygen plants were announced; the installation burden being shared by the center, coordination with foreign countries with regard to oxygen plants received in the form of aid, and DRDO. A number of countries sent emergency aid to India in the form of oxygen supplies, medicines, raw material for vaccines and ventilators. This reflected a policy shift in India; comparable aid offers had been rejected during the past sixteen years.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The number of new cases had begun to steadily drop by late-May; on 25 May, the country reported 195,994 new cases—its lowest daily increase since 13 April. However, the mortality rate has remained high; by 24 May, India recorded over 300,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19. Around 100,000 deaths had occurred in the last 26 days, and 50,000 in the last 12. In May 2021, WHO declared that two variants first found in India will be referred to as 'Delta' and 'Kappa'. Karnataka announces a COVID-19 Memorial.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: On 25 August 2021, Soumya Swaminathan said that India "may be entering some kind of stage of endemicity where there is low level transmission or moderate level transmission going on" but nothing as severe as before, in other words India is learning to live with the virus.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: India announced a mandatory 10-day quarantine on travellers arriving from United Kingdom irrespective of their vaccination status starting 4 October 2021 after United Kingdom also put the same restrictions on travellers from India by not recognizing India's vaccine certificate. On 8 October the United Kingdom opened up the restrictions on travelers from 47 countries and locations including India.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: By March, India had just 22,487 cases across the country. With 58.8% population fully vaccinated and 70% having received at least one dose opening up post-pandemic has been steady. Buoyed by the success of its vaccination program among senior citizens, adults, and adolescents, the vaccination program is now inoculating children in the 12-15 age group. Further, the central government has urged state governments to end all COVID curbs except masks and social distancing. International flights were resumed on 27 March after a gap of two years.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The Union Health Ministry's war room and policy making team in New Delhi decide how coronavirus should be tackled in the country, and consists of the ministry's Emergency Medical Response Unit, the Central Surveillance Unit (IDSP), the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and experts from three government hospitals among others. In March 2020, India's strategy was focused on cluster-containment, similar to how India contained previous epidemics, as well as "breaking the chain of transmission". 52 labs were named capable of virus testing by 13 March.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: On 14 March 2020, scientists at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) isolated a strain of the novel coronavirus. India was the fifth country to successfully obtain a pure sample of the virus; isolation of the virus would help towards expediting the development of drugs, vaccines and rapid diagnostic kits in the country. NIV shared two SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences with GISAID. In May, the NIV introduced another test kit for rapid testing.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: Initially, the labs tested samples only from those with a travel history to 12 countries designated as high-risk, or those who had come in contact with anyone testing positive for the coronavirus, or showing symptoms as per the government guidelines. On 20 March 2020, the government decided to also include all pneumonia cases, regardless of travel or contact history. On 9 April, ICMR further revised the testing strategy and allowed testing of the people showing symptoms for a week in the hotspot areas of the country, regardless of travel history or local contact to a patient. While the health ministry claimed enough tests were being performed, experts disagreed, saying that community transmission may go undetected.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: On 17 March 2020, the health ministry decided to allow accredited private pathology labs to test for COVID-19. A person could get a COVID-19 test at a private lab after a qualified physician in a government facility recommended it. Experts said this increased testing may ultimately result in a correction of the current under-counting and an increase in confirmed cases.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: 111 additional labs for testing became functional on 21 March. On 24 March, Mylab Discovery Solutions became the first Indian company to have received regulatory validation for its RT-PCR tests. In April, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi had developed a low cost paper-strip test that could detect COVID-19 within an hour. Each test would cost . On 13 April, ICMR advised pool testing in low infection areas to increase the capacity of the testing and save resources. In this process maximum five samples are tested at once and samples are tested individually only if a pool tests positive. Faulty test kits from China were subsequently returned and future orders cancelled.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: By 9 July 2020, 1132 testing labs were functional. Following testing shortages, non-accredited private laboratories applying for accreditation were also given permission to test for coronavirus. In September 2020, India had attained the highest number of daily tests in the world. By 5 May 2021, 2506 testing labs (government and private) were functional and the total daily national testing capacity reached 1,500,000 tests.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: Testing for community transmission began on 15 March 2020. 65 government laboratories started testing random samples of people who exhibit flu-like symptoms and samples from patients without any travel history or contact with infected persons. As of 18 March, no evidence of community transmission was found after results of 500 random samples tested negative. Between 15 February and 2 April, 5,911 SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Illnesses) patients were tested throughout the country of which, 104 tested positive (1.8%) in 20 states and union territories. About 40% of the identified patients did not have a travel history or any history of contact with a positive patient. The ICMR advised to prioritise containment in the 36 districts of 15 states which had reported positive cases among SARI patients.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: In April 2020 WHO placed India in the community transmission stage however in June moved India to clusters of cases. In October 2020, the health minister admitted to community transmission limited to some states and districts. Until May 2021, India insisted that clusters of cases remained, and there was no nationwide community transmission.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: On 23 March, the National Task Force for COVID-19 constituted by the ICMR recommended the use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of high-risk cases. In the same month, the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Cipla launched a joint venture to develop anti-COVID-19 drugs. In April, funds for a number of preventive agents were released to initiate research. The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology started working on genome sequencing of COVID-19 in early 2020.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: India was estimated to have approximately 40,000 ventilators in March 2020, of which 8,432 were with the public sector. The government aimed to double the capacity of ventilators by June 2020, with the assistance from Indian PSUs, firms and startups, including Bharat Electronics, DRDO and ISRO. This led to the creation of some of the world's smallest and cheapest ventilators. Production lines were repurposed to manufacture general Personal protective equipment, full body suits and ventilators; India was producing around 200,000 PPE kits and 250,000 N95 masks per day in May 2020, compared to virtually zero shortly before.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: Several states were allowed by ICMR and Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to start clinical trials of convalescent plasma therapy and plasma exchange therapy. Initial optimism around plasma therapy, resulted in ICMR stating that there is no robust evidence to support convalescent plasma therapy as a routine therapy, describing it is as an emerging and experimental therapy. Convalescent plasma therapy was dropped form the COVID-19 treatment protocol by ICMR in mid May 2021.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: In June 2020, India approved the repurposing of generic versions of the antiviral medication favipiravir for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 symptoms by Glenmark, Cipla and the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology and Lupin Limited. In July 2020, the Indian firm Biocon received emergency authorisation for the use of the repurposed drug Itolizumab in treatments for chronic plaque psoriasis, one of the symptoms of the disease.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: On 23 April 2021, Cadila Healthcare received an emergency authorisation to repurpose Peginterferon alfa-2b, a medication used to treat hepatitis C, as a treatment for moderate COVID-19 in adults. On 8 May 2021, DCGI gave permission for emergency use of the drug "2-Deoxy-D-glucose" developed by DRDO in collaboration with Dr. Reddy's Laboratories as an "adjunct or alternative therapy" for treating moderate to severe cases of COVID-19.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: By April 2021, the latest treatment guidelines mirrored those of the WHO and the United States with the important exception that, in India, mildly ill patients were allowed to be given Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin. This potential off-label prescription seems to have taken off in some parts of India: Kavery Nambisan, an Indian surgeon, said that a doctor in Kandivali, Mumbai, has treated thousands of patients with ivermectin.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The Indian government infused into the Department of Biotechnology in November 2020 to aid the development of a COVID vaccine. The 2021 budget of India also allocated for vaccine procurement.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: In January 2021, the DCGI initially approved the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) under the trade name "Covishield", and BBV152 (Covaxin), a vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in association with the Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Virology.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The approval of Covaxin was met with some concern, as the vaccine had not then completed phase 3 trials. Due to this status, those receiving Covaxin were required to sign a consent form, while some states chose to relegate Covaxin to a "buffer stock" and primarily distribute the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine. Following the conclusion of its trial, the DCGI issued a standard emergency-use authorisation to Covaxin in March 2021. The slogan '"Dawai Bhi, Kadai Bhi'" (trnsl ; Vaccination and Precautions both are necessary) was used by the Indian Government.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: In April 2021, the DCGI approved the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, which was trialled in India by Dr. Reddy's Laboratories. The initial shipment of 150 million Sputnik V doses arrived on 1 May, and began to be administered on 14 May. Domestic manufacturing of Sputnik V is expected to begin by August 2021, with doses imported from Russia being used in the meantime.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: In late-June 2021, after the DCGI removed a requirement that all COVID-19 vaccines must be trialed locally before approval (notwithstanding any approval and wide use in other major countries), the DCGI approved the Moderna vaccine for emergency use.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: Administratively, India began preparing to vaccinate its population in April 2020 with the setting up a Vaccine Task Force. Following this the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) was formed, and in October 2020 states were asked to set up state level mechanisms for the COVID-19 vaccine programme, and prepare cold chains points. A communication strategy for the vaccination programme was also revealed by the health ministry in January 2021, targeting issues such as vaccine eagerness and hesitancy.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: India started out with a vaccination policy targeting 300 million people based on occupation and age group, to be completed a time period of six months, by August 2021.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: On 19 March 2021, in the Lok Sabha, the health minister of India stated that "It is not necessary, scientifically, to give each and every person in the country the vaccine. Not each and every person in the world will be vaccinated. The prioritisation process is a dynamic process..."


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: Changes in procurement policies, the liberalised vaccination policy, and differential pricing further complicated the situation. Global vaccine obligations of India were also severely affected including those with south-Asian neighbours, and 190 countries associated with COVAX.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: By 22 October 2021, India delivered 1 Billion doses for COVID-19 out of which, 700 million were single doses and 300 million were double doses.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: According to a 2022 modelling study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, over 4.2 million lives were saved in India in 2021 due to vaccination against COVID-19.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: On 19 March 2020, Kerala announced a stimulus package of to help the state overcome both the COVID-19 epidemic and economic hardship caused by it. On 21 March, Uttar Pradesh announced to all daily wage labourers. On 22 March, Punjab announced to all registered construction workers. A number of states and union territories went on to announce free and increased rations for ration card holders. Karnataka announced relief for unorganised sectors including flower growers, washer-men and women, barbers, construction workers, auto and cab drivers, MSMEs, and weavers. The Delhi government announced that if a doctor, nurse or hygiene worker dies during treatment, their family will be provided . The Union government also announced the distribution of rations.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: A food security scheme, part of wider economic relief package of , was announced by the center on 26 March 2020. This also included direct cash transfer, primarily for migrant labourers and daily wage labourers; and free gas cylinders for three months. This was followed by RBI cutting repo rates, injecting liquidity and permitting banks to provide a moratorium on all loans for three months. Payment of taxes was relaxed and states were provided with short term credit via increased ways and means advances limits. Pending wages of daily wage labourers under Mgnrega scheme were released. On 12 May the Prime Minister announced an economic package of ; this included previous government actions, including the RBI announcements and the Finance Ministers announcement on 26 March. On 12 October and 12 November, the government announced two more economic stimulus packages, bringing the total economic stimulus to . was sanctioned for the health sectors response to COVID-19.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and Disaster Management Act, 2005 was invoked in mid-March 2020. All commercial domestic and international flights were suspended in March. A number of cities and states announced that they would restrict public gatherings, dine-in restaurants, or order the closure of various non-essential businesses through 31 March to slow the spread of COVID-19. On 19 March 2020, Prime Minister Modi asked all Indians to observe a 14-hour "Janata curfew" ("people's curfew") on 22 March, and to thank essential workers by clapping or ringing bells at 5 p.m. outside their homes. The curfew was used to evaluate the feasibility of a national lockdown.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: On 24 March, with 519 confirmed cases and 9 deaths in the country, the Prime Minister announced that India would be placed under a "total lockdown" for at least three weeks. All non-critical businesses and services were ordered closed except for hospitals, grocery stores, and pharmacies, and there was a "total ban" on leaving the home for non-essential purposes. All public transport was suspended.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: On 16 April, districts were divided into zones using a colour-coded tier system based on incidence rates, classified as a "Red" (hotspot), "Orange", or "Green" (little to no transmission) zone. All of India's major cities fell into Red zones. Beginning 20 April, agricultural businesses and stores selling farming supplies were allowed to resume operation, as well as public works programmes, cargo transport, and banks and government centres distributing benefits. Phase 3 and 4 of the lockdown extended until 31 May, with incremental relaxations and changes. The country began a phased lifting of restrictions on 8 June. This phased lifting of restrictions continued in a series of "unlocks" which extended into November 2020.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The government was criticised for not using the lockdown to prepare the health system for when the lockdown would be lifted.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: Cities in Maharashtra such as Amravati and Nagpur started imposing curfew restrictions and lockdown measures in late February and early to mid-March 2021. On 4 April, Maharashtra imposed a weekend lockdown and night curfew among other restrictions. By early to mid-May, 35 of 36 of India's states and union territories had some form of state-wide and localised restriction. The second wave of the pandemic in India has seen no nationwide lockdown. Phased unlocking was announced starting June in Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and a number of other states.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: India's covid response is being guided by a number of committees, empowered groups, advisory groups and task forces. Some of these were formed before the pandemic such as the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), "India's apex advisory body on immunization", and the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) under the National Centre for Disease Control. IDSP was brought in as early as 17 January 2020. Some of these were constituted following the onset of the pandemic such as the ICMR COVID-19 Task Force. The National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC), formed in August 2020 would guide the national vaccine delivery strategy. In October 2020, NEGVAC advice resulted in the formation of a three-tier state level mechanism for the implementation of the vaccine strategy. The overall response has been led by the Prime Minister and his office; at least 67 review meetings have been held by it between January 2020 and May 2021.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The Indian military has supported the Indian government's response during the pandemic. During the second wave, some of the steps taken by the Indian military to help the fight against the pandemic includes setting up of COVID facilities, setting up of oxygen PSA plants, providing domestic and international air and water transport assistance, providing medical assistance to civilians, providing nursing assistance and truck drivers, providing support to centre and states as requested, roping in retired military medics, providing manpower with specialised skills, and roping in the National Cadet Corps. The three armed forces were functioning under Operation CO-JEET. Operation Samudra Setu 1 which was officially conducted between 5 May 2020 and 8 July 2020 and focused on repatriation; and Samudra Setu 2 in 2021 focused on oxygen related transport.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: In March–April 2020, several companies and organisations donated masks and other pandemic related supplies. Several large business groups contributed to the PM CARES Fund. Leading Indian corporates have come forward to provide support to hospitals across the country. This includes procuring, setting up and maintaining cryogenic tanks, medical equipment and ventilators. Business leaders in India have also set up COVID-19 facilities. The chief executive officers of 40 US companies set up a global task force to collaborate on procuring equipment to support India. Ola is providing doorstep delivery of medical oxygen.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The Indian government provided around 65.5 million doses of covid vaccines to 95 countries between 20 January 2021 and late March 2021. 10.5 million doses were gifted while the remaining were commercial and COVAX obligations.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: International support has been provided to India since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. In late April 2021, international relief being transported to India increased. European countries such as France, Ireland, Belgium, Romania, Luxembourg, Portugal and Sweden sent pandemic related aid such as oxygen concentrators, ventilators and medicines. France and Germany also sent oxygen plants; Germany also sent 12 army paramedics to operate the plants. Oxygen related equipment was shipped from Bahrain, Thailand, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. Russia, United States of America and UNICEF sent various relief material including oxygen producing units. In April 2021 Taiwan sent 150 oxygen machines to India. The oxygen machines had been purchased by the Taiwanese government and modified for India's electrical voltage. Other countries to have provided support include Bhutan, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Kenya, Turkiye, Switzerland, Poland, Netherlands and Israel. On 5 May 2021, Indian External Affairs Minister said that "What you describe as aid, we call friendship" in response to foreign support during the pandemic. On 16 April, China sent 650,000 testing kits to India, but their use was discontinued in view of a very low accuracy.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: There were international concerns related to how the support being sent to India is being used. By 5 May India had received items in aid. Support between 27 April and 14 May included "10,796 oxygen concentrators, 12,269 oxygen cylinders; 19 oxygen generation plants; 6,497 ventilators, more than 4.2 lakh Remdesivir vials". The government released the institutions and the states to which the support had been sent.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The role of the National Centre for Disease Control during the COVID-19 pandemic has been questioned including the subdued sharing of data collected by the IDSP. Disease surveillance in India through IDSP faces perpetual shortage of funds and manpower resulting in a weak nationwide data collection system. The IDSP does not track deaths taking place outside hospitals, or deaths due to COVID-19 of those not tested, one of the many reasons under-counting is built into the system. The lack of epidemiologists in senior decision-making positions of COVID-19 related committees has been evident, including the absence of state-level epidemiologists in a number of states. In April 2020, the health ministry asked states to go on a hiring spree and fill vacancies for epidemiologists. Indian Council of Medical Research has been criticised for did not updating the "treatment protocol for COVID-19" between July 2020 and April 2021. The "National Task Force for COVID-19" did not meet during February and March despite members claiming it was obvious a second wave was in the making. A number of warnings pertaining to a surge in cases in March, shortages in life-saving equipment and a second wave were downsized and went unheeded. A number of problems were found with the forecasting and modelling by the National COVID-19 Supermodel Committee by independent commentators. In early May 2021, the committee said that they hadn't been able to predict the second wave accurately. A lot of problems with India's failing response to the second wave was the general and long term issues of the public health system in India.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the central and state governments of India coordinated numerous international and domestic evacuations.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: SARS-CoV-2 was first identified in the city of Wuhan, Hubei, China in mid-December 2019, when a group of people developed a pneumonia without clear causes, and existing treatments were found to be ineffective. The coronavirus has similar characteristics to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), with the resulting disease being named COVID-19. Within a number of weeks, several thousand people in Hubei's provincial capital of Wuhan were infected, and the Chinese central government imposed strict containment measures, including a lockdown of Hubei itself.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: As the virus spread worldwide, more countries also instilled their own lockdowns and put travel restrictions into place. In response, many nations evacuated their citizens as well as other nationals to transport them home. India was no exception: to control the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, all visas were suspended from 13 March and international flights were suspended nine days later from 22 March. India had started a national lockdown on 25 March, which restricted the movement of people in the country.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The Indian diaspora is the largest in the world, with the UN estimating their size at 17.5 million in 2019. The Ministry of External Affairs has higher figures, with the number of Non-resident Indians or NRIs (Indian citizens who do not live in the country on a regular-enough basis to pay income tax) alone being over 13 million. In addition, India also has a substantial population of internal migrant workers, with Reuters estimating that there are 100 million such workers.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: India has conducted several large-scale evacuations in modern times, particularly in the Middle East where there is a high concentration of Indians and several conflicts in recent history. The 1990 airlift of Indians from Kuwait has been recognized as the world's largest civilian airlift, with over 110,000 people evacuated. Domestically, Operation Rahat, which the Indian Air Force claimed was the biggest civilian helicopter evacuation ever, airlifted over 19,600 people from Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh during the 2013 North India floods.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: After the lockdown in Hubei, the government owned flag carrier Air India flew to Wuhan to evacuate Indian citizens, particularly students, stranded there. As cases spiked in Italy and Iran, the latter country of which some pilgrims had been stuck in, efforts were shifted to evacuate Indians from Milan (where Air India already flew before the pandemic) and Iranian cities. These flights were free for passengers.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The Indian government initiated a massive evacuation program called "Vande Bharat Mission" on 7 May 2020. This involved flights via Air India and its low-cost arm Air India Express. In the first three phases of the mission, the government did not allow private airlines to participate, though they have been allowed to participate in the fourth phase onwards. The government continues to set the fare, determine the routes and decide the number of flights.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: Over 67,000 evacuation requests were registered by MEA by 8 May; twenty days later, the number of registrations had increased to over 300,000. It was initially predicted that the total number of civilians evacuated could surpass the Kuwait airlift, with estimates ranging from 192,000 to 250,000. On 6 August, the MEA declared that almost 950,000 Indians were repatriated.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: As well as evacuating Indian nationals back to the country, certain flights will also evacuate anyone who wants to leave, provided they are a national, permanent resident, or have a visa valid for at least one year. Unlike previous evacuations, passengers have to pay for their journey, with fares ranging from for the Gulf states to for the United States.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: Phase one, which was conducted from 7–17 May, mostly targeted areas with high concentrations of Indians. It was predicted that this phase would feature a total of 64 flights, half of which were for the Gulf states, as well as two naval ships for Indians in the Maldives under the label "Samudra Setu" (Sea Bridge). The MEA gave a higher number of 84 flights, which may have been due to counting domestic connections on the same plane as a separate flight. As of 15 May, All India Radio reported that 56 flights had been conducted.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: This phase started on 17 May and ended on 10 June. The scope of evacuations was expanded to cover more European and Central Asian countries. It is planned that over 30,000 Indian nationals will be brought back to India through 149 flights from 40 countries in this phase.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: with scheduling over 300 flights from 50 countries. This phase is planned to include private airlines.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The fourth phase of Vande Bharat Mission will start on 3 July. This phase will be mainly focused on Gulf Countries and Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. A total of 1050 flights will be scheduled. Out of the 1050 flights, 750 flights will be operated by Indian-based private airlines and rest of them will be operated by Air India Express.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: Air India will commence phase 4 on 4 July. Air India will operate additional flights from India to Europe and the United States from 22 July 2020 to 31 July 2020 under Vande Bharat Mission


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The 5th phase began on 1 August 2020 until 31 August 2020, with over 700 flights to 53 countries planned.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: Air India operated more flights to the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the UAE and more. Out of these flights, was ill-fated Air India Express Flight 1344, which crashed and killed 21 aboard.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The Phase 6 of Vande Bharat Mission has start on 1 September and India has operated a total of 1059 flights from Afghanistan, Bahrain, Cambodia, Canada, China , France, Germany, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Maldives, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, UAE, UK and USA.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The phase 7 of the Vande Bharat mission was operationalized in Oct 2020 and more than 1000 international flights have been scheduled from 19 countries under this phase during the course of October. Under the phase 7 of Vande Bharat Mission India has operated flights from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Singapore, UAE, UK and USA.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: In support of the nation's fight against COVID-19 and as part of operation 'Samudra Setu II', seven Indian Naval ships viz. Kolkata, Kochi, Talwar, Tabar, Trikand, Jalashwa and Airavat have been deployed for shipment of liquid medical oxygen-filled cryogenic containers and associated medical equipment from various countries.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: INS Kolkata and INS Talwar, mission deployed in Persian Gulf, were the first batch of ships that were immediately diverted for the task and entered port of Manama, Bahrain on 30 April 2021.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: INS Kolkata has proceeded to Doha, Qatar for embarking medical supplies and will subsequently head to Kuwait for embarking Liquid Oxygen tanks.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: Similarly, on the Eastern seaboard, INS Airavat too has been diverted for the task, while INS Jalashwa, the LPD which played a key role during op Samudra Setu last year was pulled out of maintenance, readied and sailed out to augment the effort.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: INS Airavat is scheduled to enter Singapore for embarking Liquid oxygen tanks and INS Jalashwa is standing by in the region to embark medical stores at short notice.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The second batch of ships comprising Kochi, Trikand and Tabar mission deployed in Arabian sea have also been diverted to join the national effort.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: According to Indian Railways, over 1,000,000 migrant workers along with their families were taken home on Shramik Special ("shramik" is Hindi for "labour") trains. For the most part, state governments are taking responsibility to arrange the travel of workers back home. The state of Uttarakhand, a huge source of migrant workers, has had 130,000 applications from residents wishing to get back home.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The fees levied to passengers have presented a significant barrier to Indians who want to evacuate but did not have enough money to go home. For example, in both the Middle East and domestically in India, migrant workers have not been paid for several weeks, making it difficult for them to afford evacuation flights, trains, and buses. Passengers also raised complaints about inadequate payment and reservation infrastructure for the Vande Bharat mission, with worries about security and the 30-minute time limit to pay.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The mission notably excluded the state of West Bengal. In response, a state minister accused the MEA of discrimination, while Piyush Goyal claimed that the state government had not confirmed quarantine arrangements and that 3,700 people had registered to return there. A couple days later, an evacuation flight from Dhaka, Bangladesh to the state capital Kolkata was confirmed.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The plight of domestic migrant workers in particular caught the attention of media across the world, as the lockdown meant that they could not return home easily after losing their jobs and images of workers walking to their native places became widespread. Negative comparisons have been made between the situation of many domestic migrants and Indians abroad: Shekhar Gupta criticized the media and Narendra Modi for focusing on the Vande Bharat Mission and thus the more affluent at the expense of the working class, and some politicians criticised the central government for not focusing on migrant workers enough.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: After March, minors born abroad with OCI status or Indian visas were not allowed to travel with their Indian citizen parents back to India due to the earlier suspension of all visas for the country. In response, some MEA officials have proposed allowing some OCIs to be eligible for the flights as well.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: One of the flights under the mission, Air India Express Flight 1344 from Dubai International Airport to Calicut International Airport, skidded off the runway and crashed into a gorge, killing 21 out of the 190 people on board.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: On 26 August, Indians including women and children were not allowed to board the Air India flight AI-312 to Incheon (South Korea) at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (New Delhi) without prior information. More than 180 Indian passengers bought ticket to fly from India to Korea to join their families, universities and jobs.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: These passengers reached Delhi airport from different cities of India. But hours before the boarding they were informed that they are not allowed to board the flight due to some approval issues with South Korea. All passengers were forced to return to their home cities.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: The 2020 lockdown left tens of millions of migrant workers unemployed. With factories and workplaces shut down, many migrant workers were left with no livelihood. They thus decided to walk hundreds of kilometres to go back to their native villages, accompanied by their families in many cases. In response, the central and state governments took various measures to help them. The central government then announced that it had asked state governments to set up immediate relief camps for the migrant workers returning to their native states, and later issued orders protecting the rights of the migrants.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: In its report to the Supreme Court of India on 30 March 2020, the central government stated that the migrant workers, apprehensive about their survival, moved in the panic created by fake news that the lockdown would last for more than three months. In early May, the central government permitted the Indian Railways to launch "Shramik Special" trains for the migrant workers and others stranded, but this move had its own complications. On 26 May, the Supreme Court admitted that the problems of the migrants had still not been solved and ordered the Centre and States to provide free food, shelter and transport to stranded migrant workers.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in India

text: In January 2020, Indian pharma companies raised the issue that drug supplies could be hit if the pandemic situation in China became worse. India sources about 70% of its pharmaceutical ingredients from China. In March 2020, India restricted export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients; this restriction pointed to impending global shortages. During the second wave of the pandemic in India shortages of certain drugs caused some COVID-19 patients to go to the black market. In April 2021, other important COVID-19 related drugs also faced lowered stocks and sharp rise in cost of raw materials.