The dual-health threat is particularly called in the Indian capital New Delhi, where the annual increase in winter pollution levels has come amid a surge in new COVID-19 cases. The capital city hospitals, already strained by the virus, are also filling up with patients suffering from respiratory distress due to air pollution.

Though pandemic has pushed people to adopt emergency measures such as boosting public transit, which was harder to implement. And long-term targets, including preventing power plants from dirty fossil fuels, are taking a sigh of relief. The capital city reports approximate 1.67 million people die annually from bad air. Pandemic slowed down the efforts to clean emissions at coal-fired power plants, which account for 65 percent of India’s electricity. India’s power ministry has got a deadline extension from the environment ministry while the government has undertaken measures concentrating at boosting coal production.  

Last year, the government asked the state-run Coal India to increase the annual production from the current 661 million tons (600 million metric tons) to over a billion tons by 2024. India is the third-highest emitter of carbon dioxide, behind China and the United States and the government is taking necessary steps to reduce as much as possible. 

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