The statement issued by a group of scientists, academics and public health professionals including Magsaysay Awardee Dr Sandeep Pandey who has taught in several Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management, recognized that the lockdown has been justified by epidemiological considerations. But raises very valid concern: "The lockdown imposed by the government of India has allowed those who have the means to survive for 21 days and beyond, to stay at home to protect their health. But, for more than 90% of the workforce, which is in the unorganized sector or informally employed in the organized sector, and especially for casual labourers who earn on a daily basis, the lockdown is both an immediate health risk and an economic catastrophe."
Lockdown by itself is not a cure
"A lockdown of society, by itself, is not a cure for the COVID-19 epidemic and it is a stratagem for winning some time for the healthcare system. Epidemiological models consistently suggest that, in the absence of other factors, the epidemic could bounce back once the lockdown is lifted. If this were to happen at the end of India's lockdown, the epidemic would hit a society already under severe economic distress, with potentially devastating consequences. Therefore, a post-lockdown plan is necessary that will ensure that the rate of new infections is kept low in a sustainable manner when the lockdown ends. While social distancing and better hygiene can help, these measures are insufficient by themselves. We are deeply concerned that the government of India has not released a roadmap, detailing how it plans to deal with the epidemic, once the lockdown is eased. We believe that such a plan should have been put in place before the lockdown was announced, and we urge the government to do so as soon as possible. Such a move would also enhance the confidence of people in the government's long-term strategy."
More testing is necessary
"The lockdown may succeed in temporarily suppressing the epidemic, at great social cost, but we are concerned that the government is not using this precious interval of time to actually identify as many cases of COVID-19 as possible. In particular, the current restricted testing-policy creates the risk that a large number of mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic cases - which constitute the majority of infections - will remain undetected even at the end of the lockdown period. These cases could easily serve as the nucleus for the epidemic to bounce back" reads this statement from scientists, academics and public health professionals.
They urged the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Government of India to take immediate steps to expand India's testing regimen. As of now, a little over 66,000 tests have been done in the country of 1.3 billion till now. Germany, USA, UK and other nations hard-hit by COVID-19 pandemic are doing more tests daily than India for example. We perhaps need to scale up testing and care for those infected and of course, do all what's possible to cut the chain of transmission, while boosting social security for those most in need.
Bobby Ramakant - CNS (Citizen News Service)
(Bobby Ramakant is a World Health Organization (WHO) Director General's WNTD Awardee and part of CNS (Citizen News Service) and Asha Parivar. Follow him on Twitter @bobbyramakant or visit www.citizen-news.org)
- Shared under Creative Commons (CC)
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
