Today is the 10th 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. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) continues to say that the `community spread’ hasn’t started in India. Now they have partnered with Serum India CEO Adar Poonawalla and AP Globale Chairman Abhijit to scale up the operations.
The Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi is also holding a video Conference with all the Chief Ministers to discuss the road ahead.
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. As per official data, we have 1900 confirmed cases and 54 people have succumbed to the disease.
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-99 positive cases have been found among those who attended the event. The religious gathering has left the government grappling with a new challenge in its fight against novel coronavirus pandemic.
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. Many feel the government should have anticipated and better prepared .
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.
https://www.mygov.in/covid-19/