States bat for extension of coronavirus lockdown

The ongoing 21-day lockdown, which is scheduled to come to an end on April 14, may continue in large parts of the country after several states pitched for an extension of the curbs, flagging the dangers of lifting them in one go.

The most emphatic statement on maintaining the restrictions came from Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who on Tuesday said that economic revival can wait but the pandemic had to be curbed at all costs. Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao batted for an extension of restrictions by one to two weeks on Monday.

The Centre’s decision on extending the lockdown could also be spurred by views expressed by multiple experts, who have warned that ending the lockdown immediately may waste the gains made so far in containing the outbreak.

Sources in the government said several states want the lockdown restrictions to remain in force for more time. Many of them want hotels and bars to remain shut and no resumption of schools and colleges till June.

Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Health, highlighted an ICMR study on the impact of lockdown measures. Aggarwal said the study showed that if one COVID-19 patient didn’t follow lockdown orders or practise social distancing, the patient could infect 406 people in 30 days. But if he followed the rules, a COVID-19 patient could infect 2.5 persons in 30 days.

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu said the third week of the lockdown is crucial for decision making and asked people to “abide by what ever decision follows and cooperate with the same spirit that has so far been demonstrated”.

Several states, including BJP-ruled ones, favour extending the lockdown. Apart from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh led by Yogi Adityanath also made it clear the lockdown would continue, as long as new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the state.

In NDA-ruled Bihar, the state is likely to continue with a partial lockdown after April 14, even though there have been no fresh positive cases in Bihar in the last 48 hours.

Gujarat may also extend the lockdown, since COVID-19 cases are increasing in some of the major cities such as Ahmedabad, Surat, Bhavnagar and Vadodara.

In Congress-ruled Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who swears by ruthless containment to arrest the spread of COVID-19, wants a phased lifting of the lockdown. Maharashtra, one of the worst-hit states, is unlikely to call off the lockdown. And whenever the curbs will be withdrawn, it would be in phases owing to a surge in cases in Mumbai and Pune.

Among other southern states, Tamil Nadu, which has 621 cases, feels that “relaxing the lockdown would take away the progress made in containing the disease in the past fortnight”.

Kerala is continuing the lockdown in seven districts identified as COVID-19 hotspots for the time being, while the government is considering phased relaxations of lockdown in the remaining seven districts.

In Northeast, Assam is planning to issue temporary passes to its residents, willing to return home by trains or flights but is against resumption of inter-state transport. Meghalaya will resume inter-district movement of private vehicles and essential commodities.

In West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said there was no reason to think that such an issue will be over in a day and hence “this may continue for some more time.” Restrictions on public movement and mass gathering may continue there.

(With inputs from Satish Jha, Sumir Karmakar, Bharath Joshi, Arjun Raghunath, Prasad Nichenametla, Soumya Das, Zulfikar Majid, Mrityunjay Bose, Abhay Kumar and Sanjay Pandey)