The Economist this week | | Our coverage of the new coronavirus |  | | |
| Welcome to the newsletter highlighting The Economist’s best writing on the pandemic.
This week we report on alarming developments in India. First came the news, on August 30th, that the country had counted 78,000 new cases of covid-19, more than any other nation had tallied in a single day. Then came the bill for India’s two-month lockdown. Output between April and June was 23.9% lower than in the same period in 2019, India’s National Statistics Office announced. No other big economy has shrunk so much during the pandemic. The pain was so great that hardly anyone can stomach the thought of reimposing strict controls, even though infections are rising more swiftly than ever.
Our data team looks at a benign side-effect of covid-19: when cities around the world locked down, the air grew suddenly much cleaner, saving thousands of lives. Unfortunately (but not surprisingly), as something resembling normal life resumes, normal levels of pollution are returning, too.
Another side-effect of the pandemic has been to accelerate a pre-existing trend of letting citizens interact with governments online, we report. In many places people can now register their marriages remotely and claim welfare benefits via a smartphone. In a leader, we argue that the pandemic has strengthened the case for introducing digital identity systems, with appropriate safeguards for privacy and security. Done well, they can reduce both hassle and fraud.
There is good news from England, where the latest evidence suggests that the easing of lockdown has not led to a disastrous resurgence of the coronavirus. And Lexington, our columnist who writes about the United States, argues that Donald Trump’s attempts to make the election in November about law and order will not work. Notwithstanding the president’s fiery rhetoric, even Republican voters are more worried about the pandemic and the economy than they are about violent crime.
Our mortality tracker uses the gap between the total number of people who have died from any cause and the historical average for the time of year to estimate how many deaths from the virus the official statistics are failing to pick up.
Economist Radio and Economist Films have also been focusing on the pandemic. In The Intelligence, our daily podcast, our correspondents discuss the difficulties children around the world face going back to school, and how to overcome them.
As summer vacations end and the school year starts again, I hope you find our coverage of the pandemic useful and stimulating. | | |
 | Zanny Minton Beddoes
Editor-In-Chief | | | |
Editor’s picks Must-reads from our recent coverage | | |
