Corona Virus: Has Lockdown Completely Failed in India?

In India, more than 75 thousand new cases of infection are coming out every day for the last five days. At present, so many new cases of infection are not coming up in any other country every day. The number of new daily cases is highest in India.

However, the highest total cases of infection are still in America and Brazil is in second place. India ranks third in terms of total cases of infection. But in one day, India has reached the first place in most cases of infections.

Not only here, the highest number of infections in one day has not reached the figures of India in any country. With the speed with which cases of corona infection are increasing in India, India may reach the first place in terms of total infection in the coming days.

With the relaxation of lockdown in India, cases of infection also started increasing.

From 1 June, the central government started giving relaxation in lockdown restrictions for the first time which was called Unlock-1.

After this, economic activities started slowly in the states.

With Unlock-1, cases of infection increased rapidly. At that time, the question also arose that whether unlock-1 was destroyed on what was gained from the lockdown?

When the 21-day lockdown deadline was ending for the first time starting on March 25, the challenge before Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to between either John and Jahan.

During that time, the central government had decided to extend the lockdown deadline and extended the lockdown from April 14 to May 3. Even after this, the time limit for lockdown continued to increase and finally unlocked started from 1 June.

Now three stages of unlocking have passed and the fourth phase is going to start and during this time new record figures of corona infection are also coming out in India.

Should these figures mean that the lockdown in India has proved to be a complete failure?

Giridhar R Babu, a doctor at the Public Health Foundation of India, does not agree that the lockdown has proved to be a complete failure.

Speaking to the BBC, he said, "The lockdown aimed to reduce the pace of infection and we can make necessary preparations during the lockdown. Both these objectives have been successful. It was not that the cases of infection due to the lockdown were complete. Will disappear in any way. Until there is no vaccine, then there will be cases of infection. "

Doctor Giridhar believes that the failure of lockdown is at the level of local administration. As in Mumbai and Delhi, cases of infection occurred during lockdown.

But Dr. Sanghamitra Acharya, Chairperson of the Center of Social Medicine and Community Health at JNU, does not agree with the lockdown being successful and considers the lockdown a complete failure.

She says in a conversation with the BBC, "In my opinion the lockdown has not served any purpose. Initially, there was no need for such a strict lockdown. It had to be done slowly. In the early stages, only that level of tightness in hotspots Should have been taken and not all over the country at one time. This was never seen during any epidemic. Now that cases of infection are increasing rapidly, there is no option except to unlock. People have to save their lives and now the problem arising out of that lockdown, then they said that people have to think about earning a living too. "

Dr. Giridhar R. Babu does not seem to agree that the strict lockdown should have been done gradually rather than in the earlier phase.

He says, "It is easy to speak now, but when the lockdown occurred in India, it did not happen in the United States and Brazil. Now compare it and see that there have been fewer deaths in India from both these countries. The death rate is less. "

He further adds, "Based on scientific evidence, you will find that in countries where simultaneous nationwide lockdown has been implemented, there are fewer cases of death and infection. This is being shown by studies of many countries."

But Dr Sanghamitra Acharya has a different opinion about the figures of the dead and the infected.

She says, "First the government created fear in the minds of people by showing statistics of increasing cases, but if you see the tendency of the coronavirus to spread, then the infection rate will be very visible but the death rate is very low. From the beginning, all the figures are showing this India has never had more than three percent mortality. So the number of infected has always been large but when the government needs to change its priority, it starts showing the fact that recovery rates are increasing and the mortality rate is increasing. While there has been a shortage, the truth is that these trends were there even earlier.

She says that if these trends of this epidemic had been told in advance, the atmosphere of fear that had arisen would not have happened. There are no other mental health problems associated with it.

She goes on to say, "The way the government has changed its priority is an issue because initially you used to create fear by mentioning cases of infection and now when you think it is necessary to save the economy, which is It is also important that you started talking about the recovery rate and the death rate being reduced, whereas it should have been said that along with the cases of infection, its recovery rate and death rate should have been given as much importance. It is a matter of fact that if she comes on track so soon, it is not visible.

According to the Union Ministry of Statistics, the first quarter of the fiscal year 2020-21, ie between April to June, the growth rate has fallen by 23.9%.

It was estimated that India's GDP rate could fall to 18% in the first quarter due to the coronavirus epidemic and nationwide lockdown.

At the same time, the country's largest public sector bank SBI had estimated that this rate could fall to 16.5 percent, but the latest figures are shocking.