India Unlocked! People or Covid-19?
31 May 2020
The world unlocked, India too. India has announced phased plans to end its national lockdown while completing its Lockdown 5.0 in the grave context of Covid-19. Now the strategic Lockdown is downwardly trending to Unlock 1.0 and on. India Started its Lockdown on 25th March 2020.
The story of Covid-19 and the followed global Lockdown is loaded with surprising contradictions. Normally the health environment will pay more and more attention in the case a disease is spreading uncontrollably. But in the case of Covid-19, the story is quite different. Where in the case of Covid-19, cautiousness decreases as the gravity of the disease increases. Several countries declared Lockdown in the early stages of the pandemic where its gravity is of course controllable. Later the countries and the health experts all over the world endorsed that the human casualties could be controlled considerably due to Lockdown strategy.
It is quite unfortunate and embarrassing to think that when the pandemic uncontrollably spread all over the world to touch the height of 62+ lakhs and death to reach 3.75+ lakhs, surprisingly the strategic Lockdown is being withdrawn globally. Consequently, India’s ever-applauded Lockdown 5.0 is downwardly transformed to Unlock 1.0. When India went into lockdown, there were only 500 confirmed cases and 10 deaths and now when it releases its Lockdown there were about 182,000+ confirmed cases and 5000+ deaths and the scale is terrifically progressing.
Who is responsible for this utopian strategies? Undoubtedly we could say WHO is behind all these sane or insane health research and revolution. It is the WHO, at first declared the Global Health Emergency, and later proclaimed the Pandemic. After a short while the same WHO has confessed the world that the pandemic is inevitable and unavoidable. Later they advised the whole world to cohabit with the pandemic. And now we have reached where we have begun. The historic strategy of Lockdown to tame the pandemic has become a futile mission or a great blunder. India like other countries is nothing but a part of this historic futile mission or great blunder.
As expected and usual, the roads, the seas, and even the skies will be active in the coming days. Businesses whether small, medium, or corporate, and the workplaces will be open to revitalize the world again in the midst of the pandemic. The constructions and reconstructions will be activated and the market places and entertainment spaces will be open. The places of worship, hotels, restaurants, malls, schools, and colleges will also be reopened soon. The Covid-19 will also be active and the pandemic will continue perhaps to its maximum rage.
All the researchers, health experts, and economists say that it is high time to lift the Lockdown. It is hard to sustain the Lockdown anymore as it has badly affected the people socially, economically, and psychologically. The former RBI Governor said the Lockdown should be lifted immediately otherwise things will go worse. Like the global economy, the Indian economy has also to be managed along with the persistent pandemic infection risks. So many experts opined that the Lockdown is simply a preparatory period to control the pandemic and it is time for the economic revival.
India finds solace with its mortality rate of 3% which is considered to be the lowest of its kind among the world. The experts hope that the asymptomatic cases could be controlled except in some deadly containment areas in the country. At the same time, critics say that India is having a very poor public health system to record the health and death of its people and as a result, the statistics are not at all reliable. Health experts say that there is no use in investing our effort to flatten the epidemic curve but our efforts will be for flattening the mortality curve. We should increase our screening to chase more Covid-19 patients along with the localized Lockdowns. The exporting of the migrants and importing of the nationals is nothing but the export and import of the pandemic. The mal-adjustment with the quarantine procedure violating the WHO guidelines will worsen the situation. The only panacea to get out of this pandemic is to change our lifestyle that suits to control the pandemic. This could be realized only with the volunteering spirit of the people for the national cause.
