India needs an increased focus on air quality management after the lockdowns due to COVID-19 are lifted.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to objectively verify this claim because it is an opinion expressed by experts and researchers.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to objectively verify this claim because it is an opinion expressed by experts and researchers.As per the article written by the Centre for Policy Research scholars Santosh Harish and Avani Kapur from New Delhi, considering the pandemic, the government must prioritize the economy in the following months, without overlooking air pollution because it is one of the largest risk factors contributing to India's disease problems. It added that the centre had granted Rs 4,400-crore to municipal corporations of bigger cities for 2020-21 to tackle air pollution. It also states that in light of Delhi's recent smog levels, the Union finance minister had accepted the temporary recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission that provides additional financial support in 2020-21, which would aid municipal corporations to tackle air pollution in cities with a population of one million or more.

Some experts have had concerns that after environmental restrictions are loosened to bounce back from the COVID-19 related economic losses, achieving better air quality may be harder than ever when the global crisis ends. People with underlying conditions would be susceptible to high risk such as asthma other than the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, due to polluted air.

Founder and managing trustee of the Lung Care Foundation Dr Arvind Kumar has said that every effort should be made to keep the pollution level low, which also includes dust pollution because high pollution level would contribute towards faster spread of the coronavirus.

However, when the nationwide lockdown would come to an end is not known as of now, and those are the opinions expressed by experts and researchers. Whether they would be considered by concerned authorities is not known either.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority.