People walk through a deserted alley during a lockdown imposed by the government amid rising Covid-19 cases, in New Delhi on May 16, 2021. Many didn’t make it, dying from exhaustion, dehydration, hunger or roadside accidents
With the national railway system suspended and domestic borders closed, hundreds tried to make the journey home on foot over many weeks and thousands of miles. During the first lockdown, many were stranded without jobs or food, prompting a mass exodus from cities. The longer the lockdown, the more case numbers are projected to fall, according to the model.īut a nationwide lockdown has its own health risks, particularly for India’s poor.Ībout 100 million Indians are migrant workers, mostly from rural areas who moved to cities for work. The model says a national 15-day lockdown could save approximately 100,000 lives, and prevent some 20 million people from catching the virus. More than 270,000 people have died.Īccording to a projection model from the Indian Institute of Science, at the current rate of spread, India’s case numbers could rise to 50 million by June 11, with 400,000 deaths. Since the start of the pandemic, India has recorded more than 24 million cases, second only to the United States. Some experts say this makes total sense, as it gives regional leaders the freedom to tailor restrictions to the size of the local outbreak, and the needs of their residents.Ī one-size-fits-all lockdown for a country of 1.3 billion people doesn’t work, they argue. These kind of short-term, localized measures are drastically different from the approach taken the last time India faced a coronavirus wave. Since then, the leaders of 35 of 36 of India’s states and union territories have imposed their own restrictions, including night curfews, partial closures and week-long lockdowns. “We have to try hard to avoid lockdowns.” “We have to save the country from lockdown,” Modi said in an address to the nation on April 20. This time around, Modi says a national lockdown would be a “last option.” That lockdown, which ultimately lasted almost four months, helped India to control the spread of coronavirus, but it came at a high cost, leaving the country’s poorest and most vulnerable without income or food, and often stranded far from home.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally during the pandemic in West Bengal on April 10. When the first wave of the virus hit India in March 2020, Modi announced a sweeping national lockdown hours before it went into effect, shutting state borders, suspending inter-state travel, halting businesses and requiring people to stay at home. Experts say shutting down the nation again is not realistic. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has done that before, and learned a very painful lesson.
Anthony Fauci on May 9 said of India: “You’ve got to shut down … you need to break the chain of transmission.” The Indian Medical Association earlier this month said a “complete, well-planned, pre-announced national lockdown” for 10 to 15 days would give the country’s overstretched health system time to “recoup and replenish both the material and manpower” it needs.Īnd top US coronavirus advisor, Dr. Millions of Indians are living under a mix of locally-imposed coronavirus restrictions, as the central government resists calls from leading medical experts for a nationwide lockdown.
0 kommentar(er)
