COVID 19 updates: Lockdown set to extend in India - But is current lock down effective?

Lockdown to contain COVID 19 Corona virus is set to be extended in India to contain the deadly virus. Read on to know about the lockdown of India and whether present lockdown is really effective in stopping Corona virus.

Presently India is under lockdown for a period of 21 days up to 14 April 2020. Under the present lockdown, only essential services are open and curfew passes are required by people to commute from one place to another place during the lockdown. As the lockdown period is about to end on 14 April 2020, the majority of Indians are expecting and wanting that the lockdown to be extended further to break the chain of COVID 19 Corona virus contamination. Cases of Corona virus are on the rise for consecutive days and the complete elimination is nowhere in the picture.

States in which lockdown extended till 30 April 2020 in India due to COVID 19 Corona virus

A High-level meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Ministers of Indian states had taken place in the morning in which many Chief ministers had requested the PM to extend the lockdown to contain the pandemic in India. Still, there is no official announcement that has come from the Prime Minister of India but few Chief Ministers have announced the extension of the lockdown of their respective states. Following states have been officially declared to be locked down till April 2020 end:-

1. Punjab - Punjab is the first state to announce the extension of lockdown.
2. Delhi - Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal announced that Delhi will be locked down till 30 April 2020.
3. West Bengal - CM Mamata Banerjee has also announced that West Bengal will be under lockdown till 30 April 2020.
4. Maharashtra - CM Udhav Thakre also announced the lockdown of complete Maharashtra state till 30 April 2020.
5. Orisha - Orisha will also be under lockdown till 30 April 2020.

Is lockdown effective in stopping COVID 19 spread in India?

As we all know COVID 19 is a deadly disease that is capable of killing thousands of people and also spreading at lightning speed. So the million-dollar question here is whether the current lockdown situation in India effective in containing the spread of COVID 19 virus or not. The answer is a big YES!

Due to the timely lockdown of the entire country, spreading of COVID 19 Corona virus contained in India. Keeping the population and density of population in India, it is seen as one of the biggest achievements of the Indian Government that led to contain the COVID 19 pandemic till now. Only 7500 plus positive cases have been detected till now in India which is pretty good as compared to many other countries that are badly affected by the pandemic. Still, experts feel that though the number of positive cases is lesser in number in India, the majority of the experts are skeptical about the actual number of positive COVID 19 cases. One of the main reasons for this is the lower rate of testing in India. Another important factor to consider is that few people are afraid of getting tested for the COVID 19 Corona virus due to the fear of social boycott.

All in all, till now India has been successful in containing the COVID 19 virus mainly due to the lockdown of the whole country and effective measures that are taken by various agencies which include isolation of identified cases, tracing of contacts of infected people and quarantine of the suspects.

Will extending lockdown helpful in containing COVID 19 spread in India?

Like it or not - India is about to be under lockdown for the next couple of weeks as there is a steady rise in the number of positive Corona virus cases in India. As most of the Chief Ministers are in the favour of extending the lockdown to eradicate the pandemic, it is expected that the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will anytime announce the extension of the lockdown. So let's see whether extending the lockdown is effective in India or not.

Obviously extending the lockdown will ensure that the pace of spreading COVID 19 will get slow as most of the Indians would be forcefully following the social distancing. Still, experts feel that the current lockdown also needs to be stricter as one can see that there is a number of people roaming in the vegetable markets where social distancing is not at all followed. Imagine the magnitude of COVID 19 spread if even one single person out there is a silent carrier of the deadly Corona virus. 

Apart from following social distancing by the Indians in this tough time, the Indian Government also should increase its screening and need to screen as many people as possible to effectively contain the pandemic. Once more people are screened, more cases would come into the light but it will effectively help early containment of the Corona virus. And this is a very important factor to work on as there have been cases in the densely populated slum areas like Dharavi in Mumbai and another slum in Noida. Once the community transmission of Corona virus spreads in the slum areas of India, it will become a herculean task to contain the deadly COVID 19 virus.

One more grave concern of the lockdown is the adverse impact on the poor people. While there have been thousands of migrant laborers vacated the big cities and went back to their villages, still, there are lakhs of laborers waiting for the lockdown to end so that they can start earning. Though the Indian Government has urged all companies to provide salaries to the unprivileged, most of the small companies are not giving the salary to their employees especially to those who work on daily wages. Daily laborers are also the worst hit as India has come to a standstill. Keeping in view of the quantum of such helpless and needy people, it is commendable that the Indian Government is working relentlessly to provide food and shelter.

So let us follow the social distancing and strive to eradicate the COVID 19 from the root. Hopefully, India would contain the COVID 19 virus.