Rising Covid cases: Should govt call for third lockdown?

  •   Wed, Feb 02 2022
  •   By Pearl Marita Sebatina D’Souza

February 2, 2022

The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on all the people across the world. The first time that India saw itself under complete lockdown was on Wednesday, March 24, 2020, when India was struck by the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a moment of surprise for people across the world and especially in India, as no one had ever anticipated that a tiny virus from the Chinese city of Wuhan could cause so much trouble. The first wave of Covid-19 saw the nation in a complete lockdown when just around 525 positive infections were detected across the nation. The lockdown has specifically impacted local businesses that must run on an offline medium – such as local eateries, restaurants, pubs, theatres, and small businesses. Many small-scale businesses had to completely shut down due to the pandemic, and some of them have still not been able to recover the losses till date. The onset of the pandemic has had a great impact on the Indian economy in numerous ways.

Now, with the onset of the third wave of the pandemic in 2021, which is still an ongoing issue, a third lockdown may not be the solution to curbing the spread of Covid, but rather would impact the lives of people more than ever. According to the ‘JHU CSSE COVID-19 Data’ and ‘Our World Data’, India stands at a total of 4.13 Cr Covid cases and 4.95 lakh deaths in the country. The highest number of cases have been detected in Maharashtra (77.1 lakh cases), followed by Kerala (59.8 lakh cases), Karnataka (37.9 lakh cases) and Tamil Nadu (33.3 lakh cases), data as of January 29, 2022. The number of cases is surging at a faster rate than ever before. With this increasing menace of the Covid virus along with the variants such as Omicron, the need for having a third lockdown surfaces, but in my opinion, a third lockdown at this point would not do good to the Indian economy. This is mainly because the lockdown affects various aspects of a person’s life, such as their mental state, emotional state, physical and mental well-being, and their work-life balance.

People are affected by the lockdown in more ways than one realises. Countries such as US, UK, France, and Italy have already witnessed a surge in daily Covid cases, due to the fast-spreading Omicron variant of the virus. In the outlook of the third wave of the pandemic, many states have imposed strict restrictions on people moving about in public places, rules for public transportation, night curfews and week-end lockdowns. Karnataka has imposed weekend lockdown on the people, for instance. I strongly believe that the lockdown-like impositions on people’s lives will have an adverse effect on the mental health of people and will lead to economic distress, by putting more burden on people of the lower middle class. WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan has stated that Covid is here to stay, and so people must learn to live with the Covid virus, by adapting to the ‘new normal’, which is digitization and the transition of education, work, and other offline activities to the online sphere.

When asked if restrictions like ‘night curfew’ should be imposed, Dr Swaminathan said that asking people to stay indoors and keeping schools and colleges locked causes more damage to people than the pandemic itself. The need of the hour is to overcome ‘vaccine hesitancy’, a phenomenon prominent among people of the rural areas to a greater extent as compared to the urban areas, and to inspire and urge more and more people to get themselves vaccinated against the Covid virus. Lakhs of people are employed in restaurants, movie theatres, live shows and other local businesses, whose lives and main source of income would be seriously impacted by enforcing a third nation lockdown. Public Covid protocols such as social distancing in public transport, wearing masks and sanitizing of hands in public places must be enforced and strictly observed, to curb the spread of the virus. People who have tested positive for the Covid virus or the Omicron variant of the virus need to isolate themselves and prevent spreading the virus to other people around them, by alerting their followers on social media and friends and family members in real life, that the latter need to get themselves tested for the presence of the virus, so that this can enable everyone to be in a safer position.

Dr Swaminathan also gave a suggestion that spot antigen testing should be made mandatory for all members taking part in large public gatherings or indoor events. People at the receiving end of the lockdown, those who are affected the most are highly frustrated at the suggestion of having a third lockdown amid the third wave of infections in India. The film industry has largely been impacted due to the pandemic and their revenues will only be minimalized further, if the lockdown is imposed, as movie and web series, television series and shows would have to be released only via online OTT platforms, and this would not be able to fetch as much revenue to sustain these industries. Complete vaccination should be made mandatory for those attending weddings, as this will again ensure that the Covid cases are restricted and do not spread to a larger group of people.

Various studies have suggested that the Omicron variant is less deadly than some of the previous variants and states across India need to ramp up both testing and vaccination to curb the spread of the Omicron variant across the country. Just as prevention is better than cure, people need to be educated about getting themselves completely vaccinated at the earliest, as this will ensure better control of the virus and will help reduce the number of cases among the people, as the spread will be curtailed. As per the statistics from ‘Our World in Data’, a total of 166 Crore doses of Covid vaccine has been given in India, and 70.5 Crore of the population is fully vaccinated, which is only 51.1% of the total population of India (Data as of January 29, 2022). India still has a long way to go, when it comes to vaccinating its citizens – both adults and especially the younger population of India (below 18 age group). The government of India is giving ‘booster doses’, also called ‘precaution doses’ for the frontline workers and those over 60 with comorbid conditions. After the first and the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, India is now better equipped with dealing with the situation at hand, and a third lockdown is not going to be the best possible solution in this regard. In the end, along with testing people at large and ensuring vaccinations are being administered to the public, a coordinated private-public effort is extremely essential in curbing the virus, and in ensuring minimal number of cases of Covid-19 within the nation.

 

 

 

 
By Pearl Marita Sebatina D’Souza
Pearl D'Souza is presently pursuing her Master's degree in Media and Communication, from Manipal Institute of Communication, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal. She is currently a Social Media Manager, Content Writer, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Indian Catholic Youth Movement (ICYM), Manipal unit, and also a Singer, Musician, and Choir Director at Christ Church, Manipal. She has previously interned at The Times of India, Deccan Herald and Daijiworld TV.
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Comment on this article

  • Sandra D'Souza, Manipal

    Sat, Feb 05 2022

    Excellent article Parl. You have very well studied the problem. Keep writing. Looking for many more fruitful writings from you.

  • Neena R, Mumbai

    Thu, Feb 03 2022

    Nice article Pearl! Lockdown only contributes to reducing economic activity and increasing unemployment. There is huge impact on kids and their growth and of course increase in domestic violence and other social impacts. It does not reduce mortality rate. We need to take necessary precautions and go on with life.

  • Delphine Auclair, Rishi Kesh

    Thu, Feb 03 2022

    covid is not dangerous disease as it thought to be if they allow other system medicine to operate . This is a disease of money making racket , why does it not exist during political rallies , why does it not exist among ruling class it is seen only working class .

  • Joe Britto, Nakre/Bangalore

    Thu, Feb 03 2022

    Extremely well written Pearl Marita Sebatina D'Souza. THANKS Another Gem of an article by our Pearl. Yes it may suffice if we all observe necessary Covid Precautions for next few months. The most vulnerable and those above 72 years need to be more careful and cautious.

  • Daniel, Mangalore

    Wed, Feb 02 2022

    "WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan has stated that Covid is here to stay" It is Correct. Only 1st wave was Covid. Rest all greek named common cold and 2nd wave deadly because of SPIKE generating vaccines than SPIKE Suppressing vaccines because of this looks like young sportmen worldwide are still dying ///// But using this common cold BigPharma pushed graphene nano particle through vaccines to produce these SPIKES to mimic virus to produce antibodies for covid. Hope not it will create another pandemic of its own interacting with emf radiation of 5G, like a new bleeding disease. As in Spain and New Zealand scientists have confirmed graphene contents under the microscope confirmed and warned impending Marburg type disease, when cities go fully 5G.

  • Dev, Mangalore

    Wed, Feb 02 2022

    A very well written article by Ms Pearl D Souza. Yes lockdown isn't the answer as 100 years of medical prudence based on scientific knowledge was thrown out by WHO and unscientific measures and mandates were enforced based on China Model to benefit vaccine mafia funded by Bill Gates. Dr Swaminathan seems to be chip of the same block as he too suggesting unscientific measures like failed masks and vaccines in emerging data from most vaccinated countries and research reports proving they aren't providing herd immunity or preventing deaths as 86% are from double and triple jabbed. You can expand your own research by subscribing to alternative channels where doctors and scientists don't get censored and are able to educate us about the present plandemic or scamdemic with real data and research reports. CDC of US statement last year- it is just like or less dangerous than seasonal flu and cold virus infection with recovery rate of 99.997% which means mortality rate of 0.003% and dangerous for comorbid and 72 or above 80 age group of people which is same in previous years average.


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