“In all schools, classes will be held remotely until further notice”

The authorities of New Delhi, the capital of India, decided on Thursday to close all primary schools until further notice due to air pollution in this metropolis with over 30 million inhabitants.

“Due to the increasing level of pollution in all primary schools in New Delhi, classes will be held remotely until further notice,” Atishi Marlena Singh, a representative of the local authorities, announced on social media.

As city officials reported earlier, visibility at New Delhi International Airport dropped to 300 meters on Thursday. On Wednesday, some flights operated in near-zero visibility. According to data from Flightradar24, as many as 88 percent departures and 54 percent arrivals were delayed. The air in India is so thick in places that even popular tourist attractions such as the 17th-century Taj Mahal in Agra and the Golden Temple – the main shrine of Sikhism – in Amritsar, are barely visible. The smog that is choking India is very dangerous to health. Doctors are warning about the increase in the number of patients, including children, suffering from cough, cold and acute asthma attacks.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, an Indian politician and activist of the social democratic Indian National Congress, after returning to New Delhi from the city of Wayanad in Kerala, said on social media that it was an experience reminiscent of “entering a gas chamber.” – Layer smog it's even more shocking when you see it from the air – she wrote on the X website.

The most polluted city in the world on Thursday was Lahore in eastern Pakistan, with a population of 14 million, reported the Swiss company IQAir, which collects and publishes data on air pollution around the world. In Lahore, the pollution rate was over 1.1 thousand. In New Delhi, in second place, it was 290. High air pollution was also recorded in Kolkata, Hanoi, Dhaka and Jakarta on Thursday. IN Warsaw the AQI index was close to 78. An AQI value of 0-50 is considered good, while a level of 400-500 constitutes a health hazard, even for healthy people. Values ​​above 800 are classified as deadly.

Pollution levels in New Delhi are likely to remain high on Friday, India's Ministry of Earth Sciences said.

Last month, India's Supreme Court added clean air to the list of basic human rights and ordered the government to take action in this direction.

From a study published in June this year. shows that air pollution was responsible for 11.5 percent. mortality in New Delhi, i.e. 12,000 deaths per year.