Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao appeals to PM Modi to extend coronavirus lockdown

Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao has opined that the lockdown period in the country should be extended by at-least two weeks in order to save lives from COVID-19 pandemic, adding that he would emphasize such necessity to the PM.

As announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24, the nation is presently under a lockdown till April 14, to contain the spread of the virus.

“For a country like ours with poor health infrastructure, lockdown is the only weapon to fight COVID-19. I appeal to the PM to extend the lockdown by at-least one, two weeks more,” said Rao addressing a press conference on Monday.

“Yes, the economy would suffer but money can be made later also. We need to first save lives,” said Rao pointing that his state has earned a revenue of just Rs six crore in place of Rs 2400 crore, because of the shutdown.

Rao cited Boston Consulting Group’s Epidemic Projections report as saying that lockdown could be required till June first week.

While Rao said that lifting of lockdown would open the flood gates of public activity from offices, markets to pubs leading to an undesired situation, what apparently weighed strongly in favor of lockdown extension is the piling cases in Telangana from the Nizamuddin Markaz event.

Rao’s latest stand is in stark contrast with his projections made one week back, when, mentioning the 14-day quarantine of 25937 foreign returnees as ending by April 7, he said that Telangana could become COVID-19 free by then.

On Monday, the CM said that the Nizamuddin Markaz event has shattered all those hopes. Most of the state’s 364 COVID-19 cases have origins from the Jamiaat Tablighi event, revealed in shocking numbers since last week.

308 patients are under treatment in Hyderabad’s Gandhi Hospital now, said Rao estimating that at-least 100 more cases could add to the tally.

According to the CM, out of the over 1000 who returned from Delhi, 172 are detected with the virus, and 11 of them died. 93 more positive cases are revealed as of their primary contacts.

In contrast, only 50 cases have foreign origin (returnees 30 and their contacts 20), out of which 35 persons are discharged and 15 will be soon. “Foreign returnees’ episode was not much trouble,” Rao said.

Rao made a strong appeal to persons connected with Markaz and their contacts to immediately report to the health authorities.