[Latheesh]

Situation looks better in states like Kerala and Karnataka and partial lock down of clusters may work. 3 weeks lockdown played very crucial in controlling the spread and one more week of strict lock down will make sure that they are ready for partial lock down.

Keeping migrant workers under control is important and respective state Goverments need to make sure food and shelter for all of them. Some criminals may try to take advantage of their situation (just like what happened in Kerala, Gujarat, and today in Mumbai) by spreading fake news through social media.

We as a society are careless when it come to basic hygeine and maintaining social distance. Only way for us is lock down to get out of this virus. I was expecting better test numbers during 3 weeks lock down but our Goverments failed there. Number of current active cases are not representative of actual numbers.

I support stricter lock down till 20th and partial lock down beyond that till situation improves.

[Vipin Kumar]

I support the current lockdown fully, including its extension till 3 May. In India the R0 of Covid-19 is still there at 1.55. It had touched a peak of 4 at one point in March, just before the lockdown was announced. The lockdown period has brought it down and it is an improvement definitely. But unless it is brought considerably below 1, we cannot control the infection and we shouldn't withdraw the lockdown. We ought to remember that in Italy, one of the worst hit states, it has just come down to an exact 1 and still we can see the daily death rates and addition of new patients.

Yes, at the same time, I would ask for is a sound economic package aiming at making the people of unorganized sectors cope with the lockdown and its issues. That may be achieved with a package, decentralized management and empowerment of local bodies.

[nagr22]

I support the current lockdown plan. We are a country who cannot even enforce traffic rules strictly. Even if we identify all the Covid patients and hotspots, we do not have the man power to completely seal off those areas as well as provide them with the necessities to survive. Let's assume we somehow we achieve that, I can guarantee that there will be many people who will somehow sneak out from those sealed places (through shortcuts, bribes etc) and mingle with the rest of the population. The fact that majority of the infected patients show no symptoms will make this worse.
According to Wikipedia, the global crude death rate (percentage of people dying per year due to ALL causes is 0.77%. From the data available with us, Covid has a mortality rate of 1-4% which makes it worse than ALL other causes of deaths combined. So the question of letting the people get herd immunity while we save the economy is out of contention. If this disease hits uncontrollably, none of us will be worried about economy. I would like to end this post with the below tweets from Elon Musk:

[akshaymahajan]

Originally Posted by nagr22

According to Wikipedia, the global crude death rate (percentage of people dying per year due to ALL causes is 0.77%. From the data available with us, Covid has a mortality rate of 1-4% which makes it worse than ALL other causes of deaths combined.

The 1-4% is percentage of deaths among people who have tested positive right? So that isnt the correct conclusion if I am reading this right.

[meerkat]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

.... Outside of Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi and Rajasthan the other states are simply not doing adequate testing either in absolute numbers or as a ratio to every 100,000 of population. As an example, UP at ~11,000 tests on a population base of 20 crores is too sad to even cry over. Same with MP, AP, WB, JH etc. I think some Chief Ministers have figured that the way to demonstrate the best statistics is to test as little as possible. The less you test, the less cases you will discover, the less CV19 deaths you can officially report. You cant fail the exam you don't sit for.*

Please don't berate UP ! -- They are still FAR ahead of WB, who, with about half the population of UP, have so far managed less than 2800 tests (less than 70% of even patients put in isolation in hospitals)! There are more than 50000 people who had to be quarantined. Several hospitals had to be at least partially shut down because doctors and support staff had to be quarantined.

*I don't buy the argument that they are waiting for test kits to arrive from China. ...

NICED, Kolkata have reported that they had supplied 5 WB Govt. hospitals with 5000 test kits by the last week of March itself! And NICED have a stock of as many as 27000 kits themselves! Still, they see just 20 tests per day on an average sent to them, -- some days much less than even that!

Oh yes, death certificates can't mention Covid-19 as the cause even with a positive test report, if the patient had been admitted in a hospital with some co-morbidity! The official no. of death still remains in single digit. In early April there was a curious case of a hurried press conference to report a lower death number of 3 just an hour-or-so after a govt. committee had already reported 7 deaths!

Make of all these what you will.
.

[vibbs]

Bit unclear to me as to what I should vote.

I fully support the lockdown in the sense that since it's is force, I will abide by it. I strongly believe the only way a large country like India can defeat a pandemic like this is to go with the government action wholeheartedly.

Whether it is the right way forward or not, I don't know. I don't have the data, statistics nor do I have the time to run an analysis and figure out if this is the right way forward. This is what I have voted.

However, I would believe there are specialists who have been designated this job and for greater good, I hope and believe they have weighed in all the options much better than us armchair analysts to form an informed opinion on what should be the way forward.

[racer_ash]

Originally Posted by akshaymahajan

The 1-4% is percentage of deaths among people who have tested positive right? So that isnt the correct conclusion if I am reading this right.

If we go by what WHO and the health experts have to say, the COVID-19 has a propensity to affect EVERYONE in the population and hence some countries like UK initially proposed herd immunity as a control (which they later changed). So, ideally, the whole world could get affected by COVID-19.

[turbo_delight]

I think the choice of yes/no is also dependent on the person profile.
For somebody who is in his teens or twenties, or for someone who's into business, they might not want the lockdown to continue.

But for someone who's worried about elders at home, kids at home, their choice will be yes.

It's similar to the question of do we want to save the economy or lives. Same as opening up the population to get herd immunity to save economy vs saving lives.

UK Boris Johnson started with herd immunity approach, got a first hand experience with the fear, but being prime minister, very well knew that he'll be given the best of medical facilities.
Not sure if an average person in UK would have the same confidence.

In India, as our PM said, we want to save the elders and the kids. The lockdown is not to save the younger generation but to save the elders and the kids.

So the choice of our answer shows on which side are we. Are we inclined to save the "economy", or we want to save the elders and kids.

My choice is yes.

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by Sankar

My vote would have been yes 3 weeks ago. But now i guess I would vote to close districts/clusters. But wait, I can't say really I do not have the real picture of what is happening on the ground, no data. So I think I should put my faith in the governments (Central and State - both govts are doing great from my pov) and follow their guidelines and keep my senses, eyes, ears open and mouth shut. I don't have a vote here, my thoughts on this are as dynamic as the situation.

I voted NO, but I've changed my views over a period and I'm now at the "NO" stage. Everytime I look at some videos on YouTube from a person from an affluent society in the West telling us about how dangerous the virus is, I get a chill.

I like Sankar's answer best, and I'm of the same opinion. We should be open to new information and ideas.

[Turbanator]

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/75152409.cms

This will broadly answer Questions about the life after 20th

Edit - copy of the MHA order enclosed.

[itwasntme]

Latest consolidated MHA order dated 15 April.

[sunilch]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Latest consolidated MHA order dated 15 April.

This is good. If implemented well, I see at-least 25-30% of the work force getting back to work/office in coming days.

[aniketi]

Some good news, finally.

Some industries in rural areas will be allowed to reopen after April 20 to reduce hardships for millions because of a prolonged lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus, the government said today, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the nationwide lockdown till May 3 and said restrictions would be relaxed after a week in the least infected parts of India. The government will also allow farm activities, construction of roads and buildings in rural areas, IT, e-commerce and all inter-state goods transport while keeping in force strong restrictions in hotspots -- areas with a large number of COVID-19 cases or showing a rapid rise in infection. PM Modi announced the extended restrictions as India crossed 10,000 coronavirus cases despite a 21-day lockdown.

HIGHLIGHTS

1 Inter-state transport of essential, non-essential items after April 20
2 All air, train and road travel,educational institutes, hotels stay closed
3 PM Modi announced extension of coronavirus lockdown till May 3

Here's your 10-point cheatsheet on New Government Guidelines for lockdown:

1 Agricultural and related activities will resume fully to generate jobs for daily wagers and others. Industries operating in rural areas will be allowed with strict social distancing norms.
2 The inter-state transport of goods, essential and non-essential items, will be allowed after April 20. Highway ''dhabas'', truck repair shops and call centres for government activities can reopen from April 20. So can manufacturing units of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.
3 "To provide an impetus to the rural economy, industries operating in rural areas, including food processing industries; construction of roads, irrigation projects, buildings and industrial projects in rural areas; works under MNREGA, with priority to irrigation and water conservation works; and operation of rural Common Service Centres have all been allowed. These activities will create job opportunities for rural labor, including the migrant labor force," the guidelines say.
4 Manufacturing and other industrial establishments with access control will be allowed in SEZs, EoUs, industrial estates and industrial townships after implementation of SOP for social distancing. Manufacture of IT hardware and of essential goods and packaging can resume.
5 Coal, mineral and oil production will be allowed.
6 The Reserve Bank of India, banks, ATMs, capital and debt markets as notified by SEBI and insurance companies will also remain functional, to provide liquidity and credit support to the industrial sectors.
7 The supply of milk, milk products, poultry and livestock farming and tea, coffee and rubber plantations will resume.
8 The government said the digital economy is critical to the services sector and national growth, so e-commerce, IT and IT-enabled services, data and call centres for government activities, and online teaching and distance learning are all permitted activities.
9 Important offices of Central and State Governments and local bodies will remain open with required strength.
10 All air, train and road travel, educational institutions; industrial and commercial activities, hotels, cinema halls, shopping complexes, theatres stay closed. Social, political and other events, religious centres and gatherings will also not be allowed.



Read more at: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/coro...home-topscroll

Stay home, stay safe.
Soon we all will be on roads.

Cheers!!

[hareshjethwani]

I sincerely hope the leverage given after 20th April, people do not misuse the opportunity. Else be ready for a new record in spike in the number of cases !

[poloman]

While checking few news sites, It was funny to see the stories from film stars and cricketing community which look like planted. These guys are going to be affected in the long term. So to keep audiences and public engaged they are coming up with some irrelevant stories time to time. Sample one

https://www.hindustantimes.com/crick...S6Anz1fiJ.html

You can see many such stories in the online media.