Where ICMR wants lockdown for one-and-a-half months

Positiveness rate for districts where there is more than 10% lockdown of one and a half months: Doctor Balaram Bhargava

Ground Report | New Delhi: Dr. Balaram Bhargava, director of ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), an institution that monitors the condition of covid virus in India, has said that in the districts where the maximum number of cases of corona virus infection are being recorded, one and a half to two Lockdown must be applied for months.

During an interview, Doctor Balram Bhargava said that in the districts where the rate of infection is more than 10 percent, more restrictions are required to prevent the spread of corona virus in those districts.

At present, there are 718 districts in the country, where the corona test has a positive rate of more than 10 percent. These include big cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

It is believed that this comment of Dr. Balram Bhargava is the first such comment by a top government official who supports extending the lockdown period to get out of the era of Corona crisis.

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After the loss to the economy due to the lockdown imposed last year, the Modi government does not want to impose a nationwide lockdown and the central government has left this decision on the state governments.

In order to curb the corona, different states of the country have imposed a lockdown at their level and have issued rules. Reviewing these rules every week or ten days, the restrictions are being extended for a week or for fifteen days.

Dr. Bhargava said, "There should be complete lockout in the districts where corona positivity rate is high. Relief can be given in districts where the positivity rate has reached five to ten percent, but for this rate will have to be reached. And it clearly does not appear to happen within six to eight weeks of coming. "

Referring to the capital Delhi, Dr. Bhargava said, "If relief is granted today in Delhi, there will be havoc here."

The positivity rate in Delhi has reached 35 percent but now it has come down to 17 percent.

India is facing the second wave of corona epidemic. Every day more than three and a half lakh cases of corona infection are being registered, while around four thousand deaths are being done. However, experts say that the actual figures are about 10 times more than this.

The hospitals and crematoriums here are full of patients and dead bodies, health workers are badly tired and the state is short of medical oxygen and medicines.

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Political events have been criticized in the media for not following the guidelines related to covid-19 at religious events and election rallies amid growing Corona cases in the country.

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Dr. Bhargava did not criticize the Modi government but said that in view of the crisis, there was a delay in starting the effort to curb it.

"I think there was a delay in banning districts with a positivity rate of more than 10 per cent, but a lockdown was imposed later," he said.

He said that on April 15, there was a meeting of the National Task Force for covid-19 in which it was recommended to lockdown the districts with positivity rate of 10% or more.

However after this, in a message broadcast on television on 20 April, Prime Minister Modi said that the lockdown should be seen as "the last step" and states should focus on "micro content zones".

Earlier this month, news agency Reuters said that the head of the National Center for Disease Control had said in a private virtual event that the country needed a strict lockdown since the beginning of April.

Dr. Bhargava did not point to any politician but said that programs like gathering of large number of people during the covid-19 epidemic should not be accepted.

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