India is recording more than 300,000 coronavirus cases daily for two weeks now and over 3,500 deaths a day, with the dead being cremated in makeshift mass crematoriums. Jeffrey Gettleman, the South Asia bureau chief for the New York Times, spoke to N1 from New Delhi, saying that the city reminded him of a war zone at the moment.

He said the situation in India feels like a war in many ways, where people are scared to leave their homes and are not going outside.

“There is this invisible enemy that is stalking the population left and right. Many people are dying, we are surrounded by the images of people dying,” said Gettleman, a former war correspondent who used to report from Iraq and Africa.

Describing the seriousness of the situation in India, he said that New Delhi, where he is, but also the rest of India is covered in smoke from the enormous cremations happening these days.

According to him, the coronavirus figures are much worse than those presented in official reports and India is breaking world records every day.

Watch the full interview with Gettleman in the video.