[sachinayak]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

With the way cases are increasing everyday and now with the crowds due to liquor sales going out of control this seems to be the only way.

Based on my personal experience of waiting in a line for 1.5 hours to pick up liquor, I can confidently say in my neighborhood, if you would ever want to see the most diligent and ideal example of social distancing it would be the queue outside all liquor shops. Two reasons

1. Adequate policing and enforcement

2. Folks FEAR that any violation of guidelines would lead to liquor shops closing down and would want to avoid at all costs.

Anywhere else is a different story. People moving in groups, not necessarily following guidelines, not wearing masks. For once the tipplers are behaving like the most disciplined citizens. But that's only my area. Perhaps cannot be generalized.

[The Rationalist]

Originally Posted by _chikku

Is that a sheer negligence or lack of awareness ? what do you think ?
This is not in the official figures yet. Where did you get the info from ?

The testing is based on ICMR guidelines. ICMR is only an advisory body, but they are acting as a governing body. They are against plasma therapy and all. Whom to complain? Guidelines are there for a general framework, but who cares. It’s in our genes isn’t it, when someone asks for advice, we want them to take that and will be offended if they takes a pragmatic one. It’s either our way or the highway.

The patient P17 became RT-PCR negative two days back, he was kept in hospital as he had co-morbidities like Cardiovascular disease. He died to cardiac causes it seems, so he will counted as non Covid death. I feel he died as a complication of Covid, but the guidelines say that only if a person dies during positivity he will be counted under Covid. If the person dies the next moment after a negative test, he will be out of Covid statistics. All states want a better looking progress card, what else can be said?

[_chikku]

Originally Posted by The Rationalist

The patient P17 became RT-PCR negative two days back, he was kept in hospital as he had co-morbidities like Cardiovascular disease. He died to cardiac causes it seems, so he will counted as non Covid death. I feel he died as a complication of Covid, but the guidelines say that only if a person dies during positivity he will be counted under Covid. If the person dies the next moment after a negative test, he will be out of Covid statistics. All states want a better looking progress card, what else can be said?

Yeah, same thing the government has done in Karnataka. States want to move to so called green zones faster.

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by sachinayak

Perhaps cannot be generalized.

Your line above is the reality of the situation prevalent largely in India with the opening of liquor shops. Do switch on your television to any news channel or go online and check the same. There is a complete flouting of social distancing or any kind of discipline when it comes to people buying liquor in almost all states.

Due to complete disregard of all rules Delhi has imposed a 70% additional “Corona tax” on all liquor sales. Many other states have also followed suit with their own additional taxes.

Hope after seeing what I ask you too perhaps what I mentioned in my earlier post will be abundantly clear.

Cheers

[McLaren Rulez]

So can someone explain why despite the number of cases and deaths both shooting up over the last few days, the lockdown is being eased?

[ValarMorghulis]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

So can someone explain why despite the number of cases and deaths both shooting up over the last few days, the lockdown is being eased?

Money

Adding additional text 'cos one word replies aren't allowed.

[sachinayak]

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

Money...

The answer is right, but has a negative connotation. If we reword it as "Economy & livelihood" the perspective changes.

The fact is that the virus situation is not going to end anytime soon, until we have a vaccine. We cannot keep stay locked down endlessly. There are much larger causes of death in India than COVID-19 (purely based on the data available) and the joblessness and poverty resulting from the lockdown will have much negative effect that the virus itself.

If there was a tangible time-frame when the problem was likely to get solved, there would have been a longer lockdown, but sadly that ain't the case here.

[ValarMorghulis]

Originally Posted by sachinayak

The answer is right, but has a negative connotation. If we reword it as "Economy & livelihood" the perspective changes...

To be candid, I did write a long verbose reply to the original question with the same words, economy and livelihood but it boils down to money.
We need money to survive (livelihood).
Govt. needs money to provide infrastructure, security, etc. (for economy).
Businesses need money to sustain.

No shame in saying it.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by sachinayak

The answer is right, but has a negative connotation. If we reword it as "Economy & livelihood" the perspective changes.

That is called "spin!"

There have been mistakes made which could have made the whole lockdown pain utterly futile. All the things which have caused people to rush out and crowd. Is it not predictable that that would happen? Didn't anyone (in power/administration) think?

Liquor shops should have been amongst the last, not the first, relaxations.

[McLaren Rulez]

If I buy the argument that money/economy etc. is the priority, then why have a lockdown to start with? You can't have it both ways!

This level of incompetence is astonishing, even by Indian babu standards.

[rdst_1]

Himachal had no red zones till yesterday. My whole district didn't even have one single case reported till yesterday. So they allowed people to come back from other regions. And just like the Indian government had taken a casual approach when people were arriving from abroad, similarly the state government failed at ensuring the safety of the people who had been patiently following the lockdown rules all this while. There was no institutional quarantine for the people who entered and no way to know whether they were even practising isolated quarantine inside their homes. So yesterday we had our first positive COVID case in our district in a village 31kms away from mine. Now they have put 27 other people under observation as well and a few of them minutes away from my house. The biggest blunder is comitted by the people themselves as they decided to travel back with strangers sharing taxis and then not staying put inside their homes as they were supposed to be. Now we will be declared a containment zone and it will cause economic losses as well as other distress to people who had been roaming freely since last week, when our markets had been opened. Is there any way one can sue the administration for their casual approach. Also, if they have already displayed this casualness then why become serious now and close everything up. They should just treat this like any other illness as others have been saying in this thread. How can they get away by being casual when they want and strict the next minute? How is that strategy going to help anyone?

[vik99]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

So can someone explain why despite the number of cases and deaths both shooting up over the last few days, the lockdown is being eased?

Allow me to hazard a guess... the lockdown isn't going to get rid of Covid-19. Nothing will, except, perhaps a vaccine. A vaccine is at least an year away by most estimates.

By now, the authorities feel they have a pretty good idea of where the hotspots are. So we focus on the hotspots and allow a semblance normalcy to gradually return to other areas. This, done along with adequate testing to identify any new cases is the approach we seem to have adopted. Fingers crossed!

[sunilch]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

That is called "spin!"

There have been mistakes made which could have made the whole lockdown pain utterly futile. All the things which have caused people to rush out and crowd. Is it not predictable that that would happen? Didn't anyone (in power/administration) think?

Liquor shops should have been amongst the last, not the first, relaxations.

Hehe, I for the matter think the other way. Liquor shops should have remained open from day one. For:
1) They know fuel will be sold in lesser quantity and hence you still need to keep one tap open for revenue
2) What you just said. They know if they close these for a while and then open them suddenly then we will see such crowds and may be even a stampede.

But they couldn't simpley because:
1) It would have been a political disaster for obvious reasons.
2) Liquor isn't technically classified as essential

[carnutfrombanga]

Has any Bhpian got permission to travel from Bangalore to Coimbatore or any other city in Tamil Nadu and back?
The plan is to travel by car, by myself, my wife will be joining me on the return journey.

As of now there is no clear information about how to go about getting permission or pass which is valid in TN and Karnataka.

Am I hoping for too much at this point?

[bj96]

Originally Posted by rdst_1

... There was no institutional quarantine for the people who entered ... So yesterday we had our first positive COVID case in our district in a village...

Unlikely due to migrants arriving a day or two back. It takes over a week to test positive. Most probably some older asymptomatic infections showing up now.

-BJ