Dramatic drop in Covid cases gives India hope of return to normal life

Swimming pools, cinemas and theatres to be allowed to operate at full capacity from 1 February

India's health minister, Harsh Vardhan, has claimed it has successfully contained the pandemic" and flattened its Covid-19 graph" as the country of 1.34 billion people reported just 12,000 new cases in the past 24 hours - a stark contrast to the 90,000 cases a day being reported in September.

With more than 10.7m coronavirus cases, India still has the second highest number in the world, but over the past two months it has seen a steady and steep decline in new cases, despite little by way of restrictions to prevent the spread of infection.