Randeep Guleria stated the containment zones needs to be like “mini lockdown so folks can’t exit”.
New Delhi:
The second Covid wave having taken the day by day surge throughout the 1 lakh mark in a primary within the nation, Dr Randeep Guleria — chief of Delhi’s All-India Institute of Medical Sciences — in the present day underscored the necessity for a method that may embody lockdown in hotspots.
Requested if he thinks a lockdown at this level will be thought-about, he informed NDTV, “So in regional areas the place we’ve got a variety of instances, we might take a look at a method which might embody a lockdown. I do agree with that. However it’s not one thing we have to take a look at on a nationwide stage. We have to establish areas which might be hotspots and that is like what I stated — we might have containment zones and lockdown areas (in these locations)… “
Calling the state of affairs “very worrying”, Dr Guleria, who can be a key member of the federal government’s Covid Process Drive, informed NDTV, “If we will not have a whole lockdown, we have to have containment zones”.
A national lockdown shouldn’t be seen an choice now, given the expertise of final yr. Not solely had the financial system suffered, hundreds of migrant labourers have been left with no revenue in a single day, offering the opposition with a potent instrument towards the BJP-led Central authorities.
Thus far, a number of the 10 states which might be driving the surge have opted for partial lockdowns. Maharashtra, which is once more struggling the worst, has declared weekend lockdowns and night time curfews.
Dr Guleria steered that containment zones, launched final yr because the lockdown was phased out, be used once more as a method to comprise the virus.
The containment zones, he stated, needs to be like “mini lockdown so folks can’t exit and a whole lot of testing monitoring and isolation needs to be happening in these areas. Everybody who’re in shut contact (of sufferers) needs to be examined aggressively”.
Declaring that the speed of rise in day by day Covid figures is “very steep” in comparison with the final time, he stated, “The figures crossed 1 lakh in a really brief time period and due to this fact we’d like some aggressive issues and must have a method in place”.
The nation noticed 1,03,558 contemporary Covid instances in the present day — the biggest-ever day by day surge for the reason that virus surfaced in Kerala in January final yr.
On Sunday, at a high-level assembly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi determined that central groups ought to instantly be despatched to 3 states – Maharashtra, Punjab and Chhattisgarh.
Later, PM Modi tweeted, “Reviewed the COVID-19 and vaccination associated state of affairs throughout the nation. Reiterated the significance of the 5 fold technique of testing, tracing, remedy, Covid-appropriate behaviour and vaccination as an efficient option to battle the worldwide pandemic.”