India, and many other countries are witnessing an upsurge in coronavirus cases on a daily basis. Lockdown is having little impact on controlling the spread of the virus, according to health experts.
“Lockdown would at best be able to reduce the spread of the disease. During the lockdown period, it is anticipated that apart from the high-risk close contacts of the patient, the virus would not spread to others and remain restricted. It gives a breather to the health, administration machinery Thereafter, the cases would be new and have to be controlled through other measures,” a senior doctor said, who believes lockdown is not the solution to the problem.
Renu Bhardwaj, senior microbiologist and virologist, believes that lockdown does not help in controlling the spread of the virus.
"Lockdown only gives us breathing space to better prepare for ramping up the facilities. It does not help stop the spread of the virus. Public education and enhancing awareness about precautionary measures are better tools to fight the virus," she said in a TOI report.
Meanwhile, Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad has imposed a 10-day lockdown to 'control' the spread of the virus. Amitav Banerjee, head of community medicine department at D Y Patil College and hospital in Pimpri, who is also an epidemiologist, has criticised the imposition of the lockdown, saying that lockdowns create trust problems among workers.
"We never resort to lockdowns to control communicable disease o where is the logic in lockdowns for Covid-19 which has the lowest fatality rate. Lockdowns did not check the spread of Covid-19 in any country, including India," he said.
"These episodic lockdowns at short notices will lead to a crisis of confidence and trust among workers who left the city and are now planning to come back and resume work," he added.
India has crossed 8 lakh confirmed cases of coronavirus, of which over 5 lakh have recovered. The nation has reported 22,123 deaths.
Maharashtra is the worst affected state with over 1 lakh active cases, followed by Tamil Nadu and Delhi.
