prasad1
Active member
SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 is here to stay. Every single carrier is one too many. Even if by a miracle everyone is cured this instant, surfaces could still carry SARS-CoV-2 for days. How long before a single, stray virus finds its way into someone’s lungs and this global nightmare has a sequel?
As the PM and CMs of different states met over video conferencing and decided to extend lockdown for two more weeks, reactions varied. Richer Indians fluctuated between boredom and irritation, poorer Indians between worry about short term hunger and long term poverty and death.
The real question though is this: would we go back to normal on the 1st of May? And if we do, how long before another burst of infections emerge across the country like in China, which on 11th April saw 99 new cases, its highest increase since March 6? Do we go for another lockdown? If yes, how long?
Let’s find out the peak our medical infrastructure can handle. India only has around 40,000 ventilators with only a few thousand free during normal times.
Add to that the fact that we only have 1 doctor per 1,457 citizens i.e we have a shortage of over 600,000 doctors and 2 million nurses. Right now is perhaps not the time to ask why even after 73 years of independence, India’s medical infrastructure is so woefully inadequate or laugh at the irony of doctor-shortage in a nation where every second middle-class family wants to make their child a doctor.
We learn from nations – almost all Asian – who have succeeded. South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong have kept the virus under manageable levels without draconian lockdowns, and it now seems so has China.
What these places did is what the WHO had asked in the first place – the three magic words – ‘test, test, test’ and two more: ‘contact-tracing’. But these pose a special challenge for India.
A key problem in India is our horrendous communication skills. Millions still haven’t understood the gravity of the disease and continue to roam around needlessly despite the lockdown (excluding genuine cases like hunger-stricken migrants). Thus what we need most is effective community communication of the seriousness of the issue involving local leaders and workers. This will be key to any solution we come up with.
To repeat once again - COVID-19 is not going away in a hurry. The government should make decisions based upon this assumption, as also the knowledge that resultant poverty could kill hundreds of thousands in India. But it need not be so. With enough testing, we can restart life and economy in a phased, controlled manner. And together, over time, united as a nation, step by step, we can defeat this invisible enemy better than any other country in the world.
www.sify.com
As the PM and CMs of different states met over video conferencing and decided to extend lockdown for two more weeks, reactions varied. Richer Indians fluctuated between boredom and irritation, poorer Indians between worry about short term hunger and long term poverty and death.
The real question though is this: would we go back to normal on the 1st of May? And if we do, how long before another burst of infections emerge across the country like in China, which on 11th April saw 99 new cases, its highest increase since March 6? Do we go for another lockdown? If yes, how long?
Let’s find out the peak our medical infrastructure can handle. India only has around 40,000 ventilators with only a few thousand free during normal times.
Add to that the fact that we only have 1 doctor per 1,457 citizens i.e we have a shortage of over 600,000 doctors and 2 million nurses. Right now is perhaps not the time to ask why even after 73 years of independence, India’s medical infrastructure is so woefully inadequate or laugh at the irony of doctor-shortage in a nation where every second middle-class family wants to make their child a doctor.
We learn from nations – almost all Asian – who have succeeded. South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong have kept the virus under manageable levels without draconian lockdowns, and it now seems so has China.
What these places did is what the WHO had asked in the first place – the three magic words – ‘test, test, test’ and two more: ‘contact-tracing’. But these pose a special challenge for India.
A key problem in India is our horrendous communication skills. Millions still haven’t understood the gravity of the disease and continue to roam around needlessly despite the lockdown (excluding genuine cases like hunger-stricken migrants). Thus what we need most is effective community communication of the seriousness of the issue involving local leaders and workers. This will be key to any solution we come up with.
To repeat once again - COVID-19 is not going away in a hurry. The government should make decisions based upon this assumption, as also the knowledge that resultant poverty could kill hundreds of thousands in India. But it need not be so. With enough testing, we can restart life and economy in a phased, controlled manner. And together, over time, united as a nation, step by step, we can defeat this invisible enemy better than any other country in the world.
Covid19 lockdown: There's only one way to save Indian lives and economy
To repeat once again - COVID-19 is not going away in a hurry.
www.sify.com
