COVID-19: ICMR Director says 'most of India should go under 6-8 weeks complete lockdown'

As the country faces an unprecedented COVID-19 second wave, Indian Council of Medical Research Director-General Dr. Balram Bhargava on Wednesday said that most parts of India should have a complete lockdown for six to eight weeks. 

Bhargava said in an interview that all the districts with more than 10 per cent positivity rate should remain shut down and can reopen only when it drops to 5 per cent. As per reports, over 700 districts have a test-positivity rate above 10%, including New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.

While speaking on the situation in Delhi, he said that it will be a disaster if the national capital restrictions were eased right now. When the second wave had started, Delhi was the worst-affected city, with the positivity rate being recorded at 35 per cent. However, it has now come down to about 17 per cent, according to the Delhi government’s latest bulletin.

On May 8, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) had demanded a 'well-planned preannounced' nationwide lockdown to curb COVID cases. Claiming that IMA's requests and proactive cognizance were put into the dustbin by the govt, IMA stated that decisions were taken without realizing ground realities. The medical body lamented at the failed vaccine rollout for 18-44-year-olds without planning vaccine stock, slamming the 'inhuman' differential pricing system with 50% borne by the Centre and the remaining 50% by states and private hospitals.

COVID-19 in India

India saw a record 4,205 COVID-19 fatalities in a day taking the death toll to 2,54,197, while 3,48,421 new coronavirus infections were reported, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. The total tally of COVID-19 cases in the country now stands at 2,33,40,938.

The active cases have reduced to 37,04,099 comprising 15.87 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 83.04 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,93,82,642 while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.09 per cent, the data stated.