Due to the current Covid-19 upsurge in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently under pressure to impose a lockdown in the country.
As of Monday, India recorded 366,161 new cases and according to the country’s ministry of health, this is the first time that India has recorded daily cases below 400,000 since May 6, 2021.
Since the beginning of the pandemic in India, over 22 million cases have been reported and in India, 246,116 total Covid-19 deaths have been recorded, and still counting.
Due to the second wave, over half of the states in India have undergone their own lockdowns.
As death rate rises, there is also a high demand for the country to undergo a second national lockdown.
The Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and top White House Covid-19 adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said he believed India should go on a lockdown.
While speaking to CNN, he emphasised the need for the lockdown stating that, “I don’t mean shutting down for six months.
“You just need to break the chain of transmission. And one can do that by shutting down to the extent possible for two, three weeks, four weeks.
“And then, as soon as the cases start coming down and you vaccinate more people, then you can get ahead of the trajectory of the outbreak,” said Dr. Fauci.
The Indian Medical Association had on Saturday revealed that it had been calling for a “complete, well-planned, pre-announced national lockdown” for over 20 days.
According to the association, the lockdown can last for just 10-15 days so that the health system in the country can “recoup and replenish both the material and manpower.”
The prime minister had earlier said that a lockdown will be the last resort in tackling the upsurge.
“In today’s situation, we have to save the country from lockdown. I would request states to use a lockdown as their last option. We have to try hard to avoid lockdowns and focus only on micro containment zones,” he had said.
