It is important to note that countries that have so far done a relatively good job of containing the coronavirus pandemic have refrained from imposing a complete, nation-wide, curfew-like lockdown. These include Singapore, Taiwan, Germany, and Turkey. Even China, where it all started, placed only the Hubei province under complete lockdown, not the whole country.
But Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put 1.3 billion people under a curfew-like lockdown. Since the authorities are using the word ‘curfew’ in the context of issuing passes, it is fair to call it a national curfew.
A national curfew for 21 days will definitely go a long way in reducing the transmission of the deadly virus. But what happens after 21 days? The virus won’t disappear after that. Not until we get a vaccine, and it will take at least a few months to vaccinate every Indian even after a vaccine has been developed. A few months is a very optimistic estimate. In other words, we are in this mess for years.
Like these other countries, India could also have avoided the need for a national lockdown had it done what those countries are doing: testing, testing, testing.
India’s 21-day national lockdown should thus be seen as buying time to create a massive testing infrastructure, so that even asymptomatic people could be tested and quarantined. That’s the only way to manage the coronavirus pandemic until we get drugs and vaccines to administer en masse.
Also read: Modi’s Covid-19 lockdown speech shows he doesn’t learn from past mistakes, or doesn’t care to
The devil is in the details
Sadly, Narendra Modi’s two national addresses have done little to address this concern about India not taking the mass-testing approach. We need fast testing, cheap testing, easily available testing — and a well laid out mechanism to quarantine a person the moment she is found positive, without letting her infect others, including medical staff and family members.
You have to be really naive to believe India’s official numbers of coronavirus patients — and then there are those who have died of sudden pneumonia without being tested or counted as coronavirus deaths.
The lack of widespread testing, as well as the lack of PPEs (personal protective equipment) for doctors, is a scandal. These 21 days are Modi’s last chance to fix these two problems. The responsibility is his more than anyone else’s, but state governments will also be put to test.
Sadly, the evidence so far suggests that the Modi government does not have the capacity to think through the details of planning and execution. This is turning out to be another demonetisation, with the typical Modi problem of mistaking theatrics for achievement.
The deliverable is not how many people clanged pots and pans or how many obediently followed Modi’s advice of staying indoors. The deliverable is how many people got tested, how many doctors have protective gear, how many ventilators the government managed to manufacture or buy overnight. Another deliverable is isolation centres, temporary hospitals in indoor stadia and quarantine facilities that are fit for human beings.
Modi does not have the patience or the interest to deliver on these nitty-gritty details, he’s probably working on his next grandiose ‘address to the nation’ to be applauded for his oratory. He will leave the tough things to state governments and focus on the right optics to sustain his political ratings through a tough period.
Also read: India’s perfectly-timed lockdown & wartime efforts to find Covid-19 cure
If the virus doesn’t kill you…
If we survive the pandemic, we won’t survive the impending economic collapse. The economy isn’t on Modi’s radar either. He won a national election despite disastrous economic policies that gave us a 45 year-high unemployment rate. Why should he worry about the economy?
Demonetisation and GST resulted in killing demand, and this poorly planned national curfew will kill supply chains. We’ll be left with the great Indian discovery, the zero.
Modi announced a national curfew with little notice. He addressed India at 8 pm, and the curfew came into force at midnight. Just like demonetisation. Why couldn’t he have given some notice? Why couldn’t he have done his TV address at 8 am? Maximising prime time attention, you see.
The home ministry issued a list of exemptions but try explaining them to the cops on the street. The Indian police is doing what it loves to do the most: beating up Indians with lathis. Meanwhile, lakhs of trucks are stranded on state borders. Supply chains for the most essential items have been disrupted, including medicines, milk, groceries, food and newspaper deliveries. Nobody in the prime minister’s office seems to be aware of any such thing as crop harvesting, or the Rabi season, as farmers wonder how they’ll do it amid this national curfew. Only Modi can manage to be so clever as to disrupt the country’s medical supply chain while fighting a pandemic.
Modi is the only major world leader who has not yet announced a financial package. In his first speech, he said the finance minister will head a committee, but some in the finance ministry said they heard of this committee from the PM’s speech. He did announce Rs 15,000 crore extra to meet the health expenditure arising out of the Coronavirus crisis — that is Rs 5,000 crore less than the amount of money he has kept aside for his narcissistic and unnecessary project of rebuilding the Central Vista of New Delhi.
At this rate, more Indians might die of hunger than of coronavirus. Modi’s poor administrative skills, zero attention span for details, and preference for oratory over governance spell disaster for this crisis. In a few weeks, we might find ourselves overwhelmed with an epidemic in defiance of official numbers, while the economy might start looking like the 1980s.
The author is contributing editor to ThePrint. Views are personal.
Modi is zero in public administration and disaster management.and as usual no bjpians know about economics.
You moron! It is idiots like you who doesnt obey a PM’s request. Dont blame Modi for that. BTW theprint.in is a leftist media! No doubt it is a Modi basher!
Instead of thanking Modi for being brave enough to call the shots unlike other leaders, this guy is criticizing the move mainly due to getting paid for it by the Left to encourage public and secondly coz the PM is wise enough not to disclose further action and create more panic.
Look at our population, hygiene level and compare the global cases count.
Yeah rahul Gandhi know a lot.Ashok gehlot knows a lot.Stop this facade that it’s about governance .It was always religion and political dominance.Glad BJP is playing it.They are here for 10 years
As usual these guys Modi / Shah and Nirmala don’t have any knowledge on Public Administration and Economics.
And now suddenly this came actually they don’t know what to do and also they will never listen to the secretaries who have knowledge in this . They only hear from some of the people who are always favour to them.
Indian economic policies are already absurd but in this pandemic situation this was the right step taken , these type of ill educated and mentally biased writers are writing illogical things, how can you plan a response to ongoing epidemic? these paid media houses are sponsored to spread hate news. The writer is illogical mentally unstable and probably a failure in constructive work in his life.
Hope the writer reads the comment only then it makes sense to show him how disgusting are his thoughts and inclination to demean the work of govt just for the sake of money
This can be paid propaganda only and writer should be banned
ya sure he should be banned. How could he write the truth in front of these idiots. Idiots like u who ignore the truth
what do you expect from a news portal that publish the opinions of a mechanical engineer on coronavirus just because his name started with dr. (he has a phd). please dr. doesn’t always mean doctor.
We will be burried islam and communism right here don’t worry byproduct of islamic rape.
Send this writer to hospital. His brain is malfunctioning due to Coronavirus
What hunger are you talking about man,essential services are still open ..Supermarts are open from 8 to 5 Pm. How will ppl die of hunger ??..Even after announcing a lockdown cases have been steadily rising ,if not for the lockdown imagine what would have happened?
You privileged middle class f00l. Ask the poor. They don’t go to super markets. They don’t have income. But mf like would not care. Just wait when these poor and hungry souls will had enough and start raiding houses privileged middle class. Let’s see then.
Yeah this are just petty excuses losers like you give.You people have no substance.Since you have not achieved anything personally you come here remove your frustration on people .since in real life you will dare not do this and go with tail in between your legs.No personal accomplishment, No girlfriend, Low self esteem that why the jealousy. Take in writing you can’t do shit to rich people like Ambani.By the way he was also poor but didn’t crib like you.poor fellow
I sympathize with your situation. Have a heart.world still has place for poor idiots like you
It is true that Modi did not planned properly the lockdown, but at the same time Corona has also not given him advance notice & enough time to do proper lockdown plan. Request you please don’t blame him. Whatever he did is for save the nation. “Jan hainto jahan hai” economy bapas laya ja sakta hain but not life.
The irrational and hasty decision of lockdown will kill many daily wage earners and poor people in India, forget about the economy.
Really shocked to see some comments in favour of the lockdown or rather in favour of
Modi.Can’t they all see poor are suffering LOCKDOWN IS A PRIVILEGE FOR RICH BUT NOT FOR THE POOR.
Can’t you see what’s happening in europian countries and the powerful mammoth USA. They have infected them selfs due to delay in response. Only a sudden lockdown for 1.30 billion population county helped us in controlling the pandemic spread.
The ah reporter is using india with tiny populated, developed nation with better economic situation for this comparison…These f..S just hate modi nothing else…What a shitty report..Every big boys ass whopped by virus…He want India’s..Too.
Sir if PM would have planned and executed it by giving some time to the people this rush wudn’t have hit the borders of states. Though indian ppl are uneducated but they are humans they will react according to the situation, in such a short period of time with no such announcement of how everday wagers will be relieved, they got the panic attack, didn’t you run for the grocery stock filling for next 21 days.. The ppl dont have money, food stored grocery.. They planned to leave to their villages & now this will end up in huge disaster, this mop will be the live bombs & gonna explode in near future. Now when ppl have crossed miles of distances the govt is taking responsibility for them. Borders are sealed for them poor people are stuck.. Not every person hates modiji.. Few just like him & still understand that his administration is failing & falling.
Well would the virus had given time saying “Oh they have just announced a lockdown, let them get the essential supplies once everything they ng is in place I will start spreading” isn’t it?
Do you know what a lick down is and why it’s being done?
Repeating my point mentioned in some of the replies so far, for fellow citizens to think “a bit”. Feel you were in some sort of isolation so far. Nobody requires millions of examples to show the govt.’s incompetency. Just one – when more nations started picking up infections in the first week of March (Italy, Spain, Singapore etc.) and when few nations started sourcing testing kits (South Korea, Japan etc.) to test their citizens, we stood “under-prepared”, selling social media accounts on Women’s Day. Good day to you, sir.
Thank you for not thinking much.
When the whole world was panicking on what to do next, we had a dynamic PM Modi, who swung into action by taking the first major step – banning all internationals flights into the country. He was the first world leader to do so and that decision indeed bore fruits as all the people who were evacuated later by Air India were sent to quarantine centres. The whole world then followed suit with Gulf countries then starting to ban all flights. It takes sheer guts to take such decisions as 21-day lockdown of the world’s second most populated country – but for a man who is known for decisive actions – be it the surgical strikes and the Balakot bombing, this should not be surprising. And Abhi, this was done for all Indians including you. But if you still have some good ideas why don’t you share it with the ‘Italian mother and spoilt brat’ so that they can help their beloved country from the daily record deaths. If you can’t think positively and hail our PM’s timely decision or contribute something to the nation, then its better to keep your mouth shut than spewing venom.
Before India, Poland cancelled all international flights so don’t say that India did first. There are many better leaders before modi and now also in other countries.
Friends I failed to understand what solutions we are expecting from arguing against each other. The fact is that this particular disease spreads human to human and it’s sign is not visible immediately. The very purpose of lock down is to keep people intact at one place and in case any such symptoms arises it will be easier to trace and quarantine that particular family. But if people are allowed to move freely that God knows where the chain will end. We will soon find huge population at a time being infected and the govt will be left with no resources but to allow it’s citizens to die. So it’s always wise to follow lock down as sky is not falling on our head. Let govt takes enough measures to arrange foods for the poor. I hope soon we will overcome this problem and if reqd we will work 24 hrs for next two years to recover all the losses. Don’t panic cooperate with the administration. Hardship will come but will disappear soon. Stay home be safe.
Shivam has ‘NOT JUST CRITICISED’ – but put valid points which could have been done by PM.
1. Some time OUGHT TO HAVE BEEN GIVEN before ABRUPT LOCKDOWN. Gradual lockdown within a few days of restrictions, impending lockdown signals – like was done before STOPPING INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS TO INDIA.
2. Persons living singly, elderly or otherwise, staying out of homeplace with no support – whole load of other categories – are absolutely stranded, uncertainly long – COULD VERY WELL HAVE BEN AVOIDED LARGELY, if not fully.
3. US – despite the highest affected (positive), has refrained from lockdown. Other measures like border crossing quarantining, strict travel advisories, testings,other measures are in place – BUT NO SCOPE FOR LOCKDOWN.
4. a) Restricting international visitors/flights, 100% monitoring testing strict quarantining of already arrived persons traced a period 10-15 days prior to lockdown – creating adequate infrastructure for QT, testing, treatment
b) Extensive testing of local areas – housing, on roads , travel points & modes. Results bearing deep impact on control path forward.
c) Condition based restrictions
– like deep interior villages, no penetration of virus, strict restrictions unnecessary for within village
– high risk areas including major cities & linked areas to have curfew restrictions
followed by many countries including US, Germany, France.
More such measures OUGHT TO HAVE COMPULSORILY BEEN APPLIED, BEFORE INSTANT LOCKDOWN.
Various points mentioned by Shivam Vij are ‘absolutely perfect’
– our SO VERY VERY HONEST cops, just never fail to be at their best to bully, beat mercilessly the helpless public
– PM not concerned- total disregard to public helplessness as above, or for long effects of Demonetising drama – without bothering to EVEN THINK of preparatory actions, forget about taking them – currently & in Demonetising – deep individual ego overriding everything else. (Nautanki is not wrong word).
Strong alround preparations ( adequate time was ‘very very well available’ from the time Issue implication awareness known’, from the day WHO declared Pandemic etc), reasonable notice prior to national lockdown (if at all mandatory nationwide), OUGHT TO HAVE BEEN DONE instead of current state abruptly imposed mindlessly – results overall would have been reasonably optimal.
Real sick explanation for an absurd article.
irony of India has been these paid piece of shit.no matter how the grave situation is India in these Libtards want to have there shit always eaten by
criticizing Indian govt.look at Italy,Spain,USA whats happening there.people are dying everywhere.These immediate lock down could actually prove to be blessing in disguise for India.”Ghanta economy” look at your Paagal didis west bengal how good its economy is..Paid Loosers
If anyone speak truth bhakt look them as anti modi even anti national.government ko to sirf bhasan dene matlab hai.aaj rat 12 baje se……..koi plan to tha nahi inlogo ke pass.jo bhi ho hum hi logo ne aise logo ko banaya hai.ye so raha tha jab chaina me virus tha.airoplane ko ? kui nahi kia.fligh bhej kar bahar se virus mangaya.aur aaj inke pas magraint labour ke liye kuch nahi train bhi nahi.dhup me paidal chal rahe hai log aur bhuk se mar rahe hai.ye kaisa doglapan hai bhai.dear bhakt naraj nahi hona.nahi kuch yad hai to demonetization bala bhasan bhi sun lena
Shivam Vij for people like you my grandfather, who was a simple farmer in my hometown of begusarai, invented a word called “******”। I am a doctor and I am surprised to read such an ill informed article which provokes people by fear mongering. In every Viral/bacterial prone disease there is a incubation and gestation period here its 14+3 days, 21 days followed properly will indeed halt the spread.
Dont create our lives hell and Print please dont post such useless opinions.
So do you think that economy will be safe and everything will be alright after this lockdown?
The number of people who down in India are 1,000 x higher than those infected by Covid-19. The global spread is clearly exacerbated at moderate latitudes, which are still in winter / spring. The weather & environmental factors in areas that are hot & humid parts of India, have clearly shown for centuries that the fly does not affect such lands as it does in Europe, Japan, China or N.America. Shutting down all of India, a massive land as a precaution is akin to sawing off your arm to prevent it from touching your face. Its a massive country – you cannot apply half planned blanket lockdowns over 1.3 Billion people without severe repercussions. Just like a heat wave in France does not order a shut down in Tasmania – one cannot order all-encompassing, severe, destructive lockdown on a whim & fancy with no planning or preparation as Modi seems to do always. The BJP won a mandate twice over for promises to take the nation far ahead into the future with innovation, manufacturing, smart cities, collaboration. Modi delivered zilch. The policy of impulsive actions & impulsive proclamations has not gone unnoticed. They have to be removed from office. Get them out before they grind it to dust, it’s over for them, out they go.
OMG! This is so basic sir.. Doctors know the science & theory about the incubation period & else others have nil knowledge about it all they know that this is virus & it’s killing, & by this midnight there’s curfew, there will be no work so i’ll have no money means no food, if PN WOULD’VE SAID/MENTIONED THAT there will be the proper arrangements of food & shelter for the wagers, the ppl might have shown less frightened reaction. Planning me kami reh gyi h modiji k.. Calculation sahi se betha nahi paye pm sir..
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/manoj-nakra-97128b8_shutdown-spotlights-economic-cost-of-saving-activity-6649212695163830272-ksPZ
Read and rewrite your piece.
Such articles are glaring examples of seeing everything negative in whatever good modi & his administration is doing
for public welfare.
Sorry for this journo. Arm chair impractical nut. Let him give an answer to this case study – https://www.linkedin.com/posts/manoj-nakra-97128b8_shutdown-spotlights-economic-cost-of-saving-activity-6649212695163830272-ksPZ
Very well written!
Its sometimes a shame, that the replies aren’t to the point and are mostly curse words.
The article only gets more validation in that case. But a fitting logical reply with explanations is the best way to approach this!
Well sai. But do you really believe a Bhakt will ever get into a logical discussion and use sane language? The only response can be, paid troll, please ignore!
It us idiots like you who must educate yourselves. Do you think the virus comes with a warning that any government can first ensure everyone has all that they need, are all at home, so that Modi could have come to you and said in your ears: “Okay now Pidhi, at the count of 3 go home and rest and don’t come out for the next 21 days. Okay baboo?”
All you inbred left journalists and sympathisers grow fat sitting on your armchair doing “cholshhe na, cholbe na” and think you have the answer to everything.
Idiotic, ill informed, biased, badly written,illogical.
Whatever you ate smoking is certainly not agreeing with you.
bull shit… always spitting against this govt and the nation…. without any concrete idea… sometimes I feel these types of media should be treated like what China does……..
very true. There is a conspiracy playing within a group of Political parties and media to criticize each and every act of the government and show the government as a bad one , purposefully . but they forget that in there doing so the effected one is the public and the country not the PM or BJP. Shame on these people.
Can someone give me proper reply of my question-
* if covid 19 is same for everyone.every people of india.. then why government of india give permission to grocery shop & some shope to open.. they are not human beings .? Its trape . Their is much more behind these.. senetisers and masks are not working well.. &public will enfect eachother in many village.. they are roming all over here & their. This is not good way to care or cure ..who will be responsible for this. this is very careless.. give me some response .. i m wrong or right.
In hindi-
haa or mere hisab se to ye islie kiyaa gyaa he k government pr load naa aae.. khane pine ka saman gav or village tak dene kaa.. or sb ki jarurat bhi puri hoti rhe jab ap sbko hath jod jod kr bol skte he ghr se bhar na nikle na nikle.. to ye dukan wale kyaa insan nhi he kya.. ye khi or duniya se aae h kyaa.. kyaa in logo ki care nhi he.. sare grahk dukano m ek dusre se chipak kar khade he .. na jane wo kaha kaha se aae he.. khi dusri states me majduri kr k aae h.. inme se kon infected he kon nhi .. hme kese pata hogaa.. or jab ye log bhi bhar nikl k dukan khol skte h to kis bat ka lockdown or curfew.. iska mtlb to khtra nhi h na. Sb log aram s bhar nikl k ghum skte h .. kyu fir police wale unko danda mara rhe h.. le deke sidha sa meraa yhi kehna he ki agr ap rules banante ho to sbhi k lie hona chaiye.. usme apka fayeda na chupa ho.. ap ese koisi team bhi la skte ho jo sbhi ko anaj .. gehu.. cahawl.. ya khana provide karae.. sochana he to sbhi k bare m soche.. janhit m jari . Or ha agr m galt hu to us bat pr bhi ap log mujhe reply kr skte h
Why dont u give example of what happened in italy, spain, Netherlands nd US….what price they had to pay for not issuing lockdown orders nd make people follow it. And you are talking about tests…do u know of the situation in holland…they dont have enough to test all nd people are said that only if u would be in very critical situation then come for test…there are not enough ventilators nd masks with them…so u wanted it to spread in india a country with huge population nd then when there would be so many cases you would get a chance to blame modi that he took too long to take the initiative of lockdown etc….
😉
Let us compare apples to apples in weather & environmental factors. Compare India to Kenya, Brazil, Indonesia or South Africa – how many of these nations went into total lockdown? How many seem to be suffering right now? None.
All those who are fulminating against Shivam Vij are playing into his hands.
I am not against Vij or The Print. They are simply trying to grab maximum eyeballs.
Real fools are those who give satisfaction to Vij by commenting on his article.
More the number of comments more his Brand value.
Now tell me who is bigger sucker.
That’s true.That buffon also know this.Hell I feel the people who comment here can write much better articles that this buffoon.
It is remarkable how little effort is made to counter Shivam’s points in the comments, just vitriol. As if pouring abuse is the equivalent of reasoned argument. This is what one would have expected from Modi-bhakts, of course, and they have not disappointed. But the truth must be told, so well done Shivam! The lockdown, like demonetisation, is part of a disturbing feature of the Modi government where important policy decisions are taken with no prior warning and no thought for the consequences. Shivam is right: the government took this decision in haste and is now scrambling to deal with the consequences.
It is foolish to comment on stupid people
then why are you doing it?
So True.. Now what’s going on? when things are out of order, they are announcing packages god knows when these packages will be provided to them. This should have done on the day of announcing lock down,
I have faith in my Government and Modi ji. They will save India from any debacle.
Ha ha …. It’s clearly seems that you are anti Modi, nothing at all. But I must say that instead of thinking of the he human kind you have used your intelligence to waste your time and write a lengthy article just to pinpoint the fault of our Government. I feel shame that instead of coming forward and doing something for the society you are doing this.
First of all, please be clear …. The Hubei is the province where the virus originated, hence China was able to secure the boundaries of Hubei and put it under Lockdown. But hope you know it well that China put the domestic transportation under Lockdown but kept open the International space and sea for transportation and public travel. Which made it sure that the nuisance virus was able to spread itself from Wuhan/Hubei to various parts of the world, whereas it didn’t spread in China as the Hubei boundary were secured.
Lateron the so called intelligent and educated Indians like you who were living around the Globe made themselves the carrier of this virus into India. Many of these idiots even used Paracetamol to keep their temperature under control and bypass the Indian security at Airport. This is just disgusting.
Where is the Indian Government’s fault in all this and you are blaming it for downfall of economy. If the people will perish and who will live to see the booking economy.
Please first of all, always try to discuss the issue with your team and allow others to raise their point. Please do listen to others before saying anything about Government. The Government of India since independence have always thought about it’s people.
The reason of national Lockdown is because the virus came to India from all the airport across India.
This is what I feel today. The supply chain is broken tell this to a cop and they doesn’t understand. Its not lock down its seriously curfew. Economic disaster is looming.
When you question government you get answers from their fellow supporters
What can you expect
Print doing great work and is asking questions to government is sin.
It is a negative article. At this critical stage one need to be positive and contribute ,if not keep shut as more you negative comments will discourage the right doer.
Time is short. Right way is to support the cause and contribute.
What else can be expected from “the Print”. One may not agree with govt decision than suggest what to do. Mere you hate modi, you blam all policies.
This is not an article, It must be tagged as “Rubish”
Auther needs a tight slap and must be thrown to china or itly wherever he wants.
Just Useless.
Is Print is becoming a blog for the unemployed journalist. A person with minimum commonsense can research better than this.
Please print you are just survived because of Shekhar Gupta as he speaks some sense.
How much did you pay for this Editors opinion. You should sue him for damages he caused to you.
Well Mr. Vij,
I don’t think you understand the science behind this lock down. This virus has a gestation period of 14 days. Until these 14 days are over, a carrier of the disease will not test positive, regardless of how many times you conduct the test. Given the meagre testing resources that we have in India, we cannot afford to “test test test test test test …” like this Author would like us to believe. He is just parroting what the WHO said and that is something that even some of the most prosperous countries have not been able to afford.
So when you have a lock down for 21 days, all these silent carriers would now test positive in a single test towards the end of the lock down period. And having kept them at their homes and not allowing them to mix with people and spread the disease, you would have only this carrier and his immediate family members affected. Now we have a controlled population who are affected and you can quarantine them and arrest further spread of the disease.
So towards the end of this 21 days, do expect to see a sudden spurt in the number of cases. Don’t say then that the lock down did not have any effect. Remember that these will be those silent carriers and their immediate family members who will be coming out. Thereafter, you should see the graph plateauing out. And hopefully the Indian summer would do the rest of the job.
Now imagine we did not have this lock down. These silent carriers would be roaming freely and infecting people, who in turn would be infecting others. And that population would be exponentially larger than the population of the silent carriers and their immediate families. Hope you now understand the science and statistics behind this move.
Also, imagine what would happen if this infection were to reach the hinterland where you have almost negligible medical facilities. You would have deaths in tens of thousands, or in lakhs. Locking down hot zones may have helped in countries that have less population density but not in a country like India of such size and such dense population.
BTW, the two other biggest viruses that India fought and vanquished, viz., small pox and polio were fought on similar lines. Just that the extreme of a lock down was not necessary as the spread was not as fast as this one.
On another note, the idea is not to buy time for getting additional testing kits and ventilators. Even if we had those in plentiful, for a country of the size and population density as India any amount of testing resources and ventilators would have proved inadequate if we reached the stage – 3 of the infection. So that point is moot!
Coming to your other point of how the poor people would manage this lock down. Do you think they can manage an epidemic better than starvation? I say that can manage the latter better, for they do not have any knowledge of the former in order to tackle it. At least they know the latter far far better as they are used to partial bouts of it every now and then. But the former is totally out of their control. If they land in an epidemic, can you imagine what a chaos that will create? Since times immemorial, man has controlled hunger but has failed to control disease. So the first target is the disease and then the hunger. BTW, the Government has announced about 1.7 Lakh Crore of economic aid for the poorest of the poor who are affected by this lock down. Agreed that more may have to be done, but that I think will be done as the situation unfolds. If the Indian summer takes care of the virus, then we may not need any more financial stimulus, but if not, then we may need more such doses. But then let’s first wait for the situation to unfold.
Now hope you would support this national move with full gusto and not remain a citizen suspicious of the Government’s every move.
Awesome reply
Very well written!
Its sometimes a shame, that the replies aren’t to the point and are mostly curse words.
The article only gets more validation in that case. But a fitting logical reply with explanations is the best way to approach this!
Well if Mr Vij has little knowledge of incubation period you have incomplete knowledge. What you are talking about only applies to a point source epidemic where there is a single exposure and we get all cases within a single incubation period. However this is not a single point source epidemic but a propagated one. Here there is continuous transmission in which there is little correlation with the incubation period because each patient’s incubation periods would overlap.
If a person were to meet all his contacts on one and the same day ,all their incubation periods would start on that day and they all would get infected(assuming they had pretty long and close contact required for infection) within a single incubation period. However a person before showing his own symptoms may meet many different people on different days and hence their incubation periods start at different times and hence their periods may not coincide but they have varying degrees of overlap. This leads to a continuous stream of cases all occuring at different times. The sole purpose of the lockdown is to isolate the sick and trace all their contacts,thus stop the chain of transmission,then anticipate cases from only this vast contact list we have and look out for anyone outside the list(community transmission),and to prepare for the influx of cases from this contact list by expanding your hospitals. This is presuming you have no community transmission. If there is anticipation of community transmission ,the period of lockdown depends on the amount of time required to sufficiently decrease transmission rates in order to buy time for building capacity to manage the surge in cases. So lockdown period is only very crudely linked to incubation period in a propagated epidemic like we have here.
Very well said with excellent details. But this moron won’t listen as he is paid by anti-nationals.
Writer is an Idiot and might be mentally ill his views is showing he has no idea about the virus and also he is not aware about the guidelines issued by home ministry and state govt regarding farmers and their crops and essential goods supply, now our Govt. handle it very strongly. This is not right time to talking about economy.We need to follow below mentioned tag line.
Jaan hai to Jahan hai ….
Finally, There will be More Death because of Starvation, than Corona. Well Explained Article. What happens If there is Corona Epidemic, even after Curfew. Will Modi Extend Curfew for more days. With only a fact that, Crowding Grows Corona, the Curfew NOT going to Stop Corona, But develops People’s anger mentality over the Government.
What A foolish writer…..it’s not jus Indian economy …. it’s the world economy ….. why r we even thinking of economy at this time …. it’s all about our lives …. salute to Modi for keeping our lives before money ….it’s jus a pause button to the economy …. imagine of all d resources not being wasted and used … once d lockdown is over we might have more than resources to consume which means boom in the economy …. I salute PM MODI for dis amazing decision and putting lives before anything in dis world
Reading the vitriol being poured on Shivam, it’s clear that not just Modi is India’s problem. It’s the ‘educated’ The future of India is indeed bleak.
A blatantly negative article. Never knew journalists and analysts of Luyten’s Media could be so shameless. I guess money speaks — these idiots are not genuine journalists. They are mercenaries who work for money.
This bloody Idiot must be sent to China for treatment. Very poorly researched articulation. How come the editors of The Print allow such a poorly articulated subject to be published?
Look at anand vihar delhi,
These are Indians the real Indias.
60% dig the well daily,
The fetch a pale of water.
the print should seriously look at the quality of the articles that are published if it wants to maintain its credibilty
Exactly.
this article is an insult to journalism
Another modi hater,
Shivam is not only Modi hater but India hater, humanity hater and This The Print is only Rahul supporter who runs to Bankok for reasons known to him. Stupid Shivam if some brain left in your this dull head, you would not have put exonomy before people’s lives. Shame on you. You don’t deserve my spit.
True that. i aint a modi fan. but i can tell you ,in the poorly structure country like india,its the only way to reduce the transmission.and preliminary goal now is to stop viral load n spread in community to contain them in a proper way.these media people creating all bullshit things to question. please go outside and talk media. devolped countries are struggling to contain corona. dont be a stupid to scold our nation.
You put it rightlyy??
What are evidences Dr Akshay .National lockdown for 21 days will eliminate Corona!
This scrap guy is dreaming of something more than Italy or China. But the country is going in the right direction. India will not fall into your evils trap.
Government has announced 1.75000crore with direct account transfer to the needy. But if other than this govt, any Tom Dick Harry govt was in power, they would have looted this money and shared among themselves. India thanks God for keeping modi at these difficult times.
Modi tum aage bado, him tumhare saath Hain.
Just rubbish shameful selfish approach, the editor showing. I think he must be declared illiterate if he can’t suggest a best alternate for this lock down. If his approach is for India’s wellness then suggest what to do. Not just criticize. If Indian PM has not done this lock down then he must have written that Indian PM Modi has left people to die and caring just for economy. These people make us feel why we shouldn’t have any ‘specific political party’, any ‘specific media journalism’, any specific ‘writer, editor or reporter’.
Totally agree with your point of view. The reporter seems to be a lover of the opposition party. Nonetheless, if he had the courage to give a recommendation then it would have been a good conclusion.
True.
Will someone give a hard slap to this author? Who is worried about economy now? People has to survive first, economy comes later.
The author has a comprehension deficit. He cannot understand and appreciate the differences between lives and livelihood. On the longer run, death of a family member would invite more wrath from the public than the lost livelihood in the shortrun.
Bro,
Last thing we need in this boring lock down when there’s nothing to work is a demotivating piece you call article.
This not so populated, easy to govern country is not for great people like you. Please go to Singapore or whatever highly sophisticated place you want to go ASAP.
Last but not the least, “don’t come back !!”
Like “EVER !!!”
So pathetic approach in understanding the subject topic.
Clearly its sadist mindset while penning down the article. Sitting in office and writing such article is always easier.
Article doesn’t deserve any further comments
Are you speaking sense? Such a rubbish writing! You better get out of India and go to Italy or Wuhan. What else do you want a PM to act timely? Prime Minister is supposed to delegate power and authority to state government….! The countries you have mentioned… Do you think they have tackled this issue very wisely and effectively? Aren’t you seeing the data that is being updated then and there? Demotivator !
Indians don’t even know how the economy works and don’t have any clue why they should be worried. Let them learn a hard lesson. Their fool’s paradise would help them
The author Shivam Vij needs to get his head examined…it is so easy to blabber like verbal diarrhoea…but the fact remains that what the Modi government has done is what was essential to contain and stem the spread of the virus… economy can be rebuilt if we survive…we can have policies for development even if we go back 20 years due to the lockdown…but Modi government has no choice…development versus survival? What will you choose Shivam Vij? What will you choose Anonymous? Rising stock markets? Or your breathing if you survive the disease? Think before you blabber such nonsense. Put yourself in the situation of the government and ask what would you have done if there are cases in every state in india? Lockdown a few and not entire India? Because you think economy is more important than survival? You are a cynic and a madman. Learn to appreciate what Modi government is doing.. and think that perhaps that man in the top job perhaps is losing sleep on how to manage a disaster of such epic proportions the world has never seen. So shut the fuck up and ret
What is there to appreciate
My dear
Google CEO- Indian
Microsoft CEO – Indian
Adobe CEO – Indian
Nokia CEO – Indian
GoDaddy CEO – INDIAN
AND many more CEOs making India proud working overseas.
Indians are not fool and India will definitely come out from this crisis in 2 months.
BOOKMARK MY comment!
Shivam, don’t you think you are a super idiot? How can there be area specific lockdown, when Covid-19 positive cases are being detected in almost all states in India. In that case a national lockdown is the only answer. The problem with guys like you are, having developed a pathological hatred for Modi, anything and everything done by the Govt is bad. But thankfully, idiots like you are in miniscule numbers. If we are to find faults in the steps taken by the Govt, yes there will be many. In a country of 1.3 billion people its bound to happen. But stop doing dirty politics over it. If we are now to say that Kerala and Maharashtra , both non-BJP Govt, has the highest cases and is showing no signs of residing, would that be fair? Shall we then show them in bad light and castigate them and label them as incompetent? No, I dont think so. The people of India are much more sensible and rational than you are. I am happy that people like you (and Shekar Gupta) do not get space in mainstream media and have to be contended with some 3rd rate online news portal like The Print.
No other country has done a complete lock down. You should only lock down the hot spot areas. Wake up. This lock down will kill the economy that was already dying!
And those countries are facing the consequences.. Please get your facts right
Will you please tell us where is the HOT SPOT in India.
Absolutely this lockdown is like giving the patient an antidote medicine for snakebite when he is bitten by a bee. Hope the extra medication that modiji has served to annihilate the virus doesn’t suffocate the economy and employment to a sudden death.
There are a few idiots who didn’t understand the words quarantine and self isolation and there are another few idiots who didn’t understand social distancing so in order that these two sets of idiots meet them definitely it will be a mass massacre. so it’s better decision from Modi to keep sensible people safe from these two sets of idiots.
So what is the solution you are proposing ? Criticizing is easy but what is required to give constructive suggestions ? In this long article not one single useful suggestion in terms of an alternative solution has been offered by the author. This an unprecedented situation and there are no easy solutions , If you can offer any help at-least don’t create negativity by just criticizing mindlessly. This is not the time to grind your political axe.
The author of the article is 100% mental disorder patient & he should be kept isolated island for at least 9 months at this situation with Apple mobile without SIM, During the isolation period he can be communicated other than human being. And he wants to be more smarter than our belove Prime Minister NARENDRA MODI & our prime will provide him Finance Minister portfolio for next term after Nirmala Sitaraman.
Feel you were in some sort of isolation so far. Nobody requires millions of examples to show the govt.’s incompetency. Just one – when more nations started picking up infections in the first week of March (Italy, Spain, Singapore etc.) and when few nations started sourcing testing kits (South Korea, Japan etc.) to test their citizens, we stood “under-prepared”, selling social media accounts on Women’s Day. Good day to you, sir.
Thank you for not thinking much.
He may be given company of Sitharaman on the island
If such only authers r left in India for writing then d day is not far ahead when only monkeys will run d media n only donkeys will have d fun to pass d time..hope google too not like to provide platform for such psychos
Well an economy package and Rbi package has been announced..you should have waited ..looking stupid aren’t you?
If we manage to get out of the mess before the US and other large countries you will look like a bigger idiot.
Don’t like modi but criticism just for the sake of it is stupid.
Do you understand economy or what you call a fiscal package?
Great article, all the detailed specified are very much realistic. I hope the govt take more actions towards COVID Testing, Medical Equipment Distribution, rapid santory efforst to control the virus from spreading. Disinfection spraying should be an immediate priority, we should get more volunteers to help clean up the communities rather than shutting down the garbage pickup.. etc. Food supply chain should not be shut down by any means.