Today is the tenth day of the world’s `biggest lockdown’ to combat the Coronavirus pandemic. In the world’s second most populous country, the testing for COVID-19 has beefed up after a testing kit was developed by Mylabs. Today, the Prime Minister will be holding a video conferencing with the Chief Ministers of states to take stock of the situation.
As of 2 April, according to the Ministry of health and Family welfare, a total of 1965 COVID-19 cases (including 51 foreign nationals) have been reported in 29 states/union territories. 150 have been cured and more than 58 deaths.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) continues to say that the `community spread’ hasn’t started in India. But India is now at a crucial juncture. Today a BMC sanitworker was found COVID positve. The Prime Minister has taken the bold decision for a 21 day lockdown to break the chain of transmission. Dr Henk Bekedam, WHO Representative to India said, “ WHO stands together in solidarity with India and its people and is committed to providing all the support that India needs.”
Though, that might be true yet there has been an increase in the number of confirmed cases from different states of India. The lockdown and social isolation exercise has been a success as we still haven’t reached Stage 3 of the pandemic. But that doesn’t mean we can take things easy.
The Government has identified 10 `hotspots or Covid spots across the country where an unusual transmission of the disease has been detected. These places are Dilshad Garden and Nizamuddin in Delhi, Noida Meerut, Bhilwara, Ahmedabad, Kasargod, Pathanamthitta, Kerala, Mumbai and Pune. Within the cities again, the exact locations have been announced.
The Government has decided to step up testing in the identified hotspots to stop the spread of the disease to other areas. Hundreds of people from the Nizamuddin area in Delhi are being tested for potential Covid-19 infection. Violating lockdown conditions, a religious gathering was organized in Nizamuddin where several Covid-9 positive cases have been found among those who attended the event. More than a 100 people have tested positive for the virus, as the government has done contact tracing.
The world’s biggest lockdown was announced with no warning and very little time to prepare. Next day, one saw migrant workers from villages who work in cities suddenly found themselves unable to earn daily wages. Many of them who lead a hand to mouth existence starting walking back to return to their home states. It was a rather heart wrenching to see the social Media pictures of them carrying all their belongings on their backs.
Health workers and the government fears that the large scale migration of workers from cities o villages might result in the community spread of the virus. It would then be a humongous task to control the disease with no health infrastructure in place.
Many of the migrant workers could not reach their villages as state borders have been sealed. Reports suggest that a few people lost their lives after walking for such long distances. In any case, critics opine that the crammed buses, relief camps and shelter homes are still a hotspot for the virus with very little social distancing happening here. Interestingly, the international media has called the biggest exodus after the India Pakistan Partition and others said it reminded them of the `demonetization’ days of 2016.
The Centre on Sunday directed all states to quarantine migrant workers reaching their borders in temporary shelters for a mandatory two week period. The home ministry, which issued the order hours after PM Narendra Modi apologised for the hardship caused to the poor in his Mann ki Baat programme, also advised states to set up relief camps.
Meanwhile, The PM Cares fund has been launched and donations have poured in from all sections of society including from Corporate India
