India is facing an unprecedented health crisis due to Coronavirus which has claimed more than two lakh lives so far. People are dying due to lack of oxygen on roads in Delhi and the government is seeing helplessly. Delhi high court while censuring the centre for the death of people like insects in the national capital, said that this is not Covid second wave but Tsunami. The HC is correct in reading the present situation but why the government is failing to sense the gravity of the situation is a question harassing everybody’s mind. Modi last year when a single person died of Corona, imposed strict lockdown forcing lakhs of migrants to return to their native places by walking. Now, as more than two lakh people have died due to Coronavirus infection in the entire country, Modi is hesitating to impose a complete lockdown. If the lockdown is not imposed immediately, the number of patients and deaths would continue to increase with supersonic speed and the health machinery would collapse. Delhi HC had observed that we are calling it a wave, it is actually a tsunami.  To understand the speed with which the virus is spreading, consider the following example. Last year, the first Covid-19 case was reported in
January and it took six months for the pandemic to cross twenty-five lakh cases. In what is being termed as the second wave, the number of cases crossed twenty-six lakhs within a week. In this period twenty-three thousand and eight hundred mortalities were reported. According to government statistics, five thousand, four hundred and seven covid mortalities took place in March. The official data also states that the pandemic claimed forty-five thousand lives in April alone. The total covid cases have crossed the two crore mark in India with thirty-four lakh active cases at the moment. All this data indicates towards a major social crisis.
Several foreign agencies have warned that the daily number of cases in India will cross ten lakhs and mortalities will be in the range of five thousand per day this month. Following these revelations, there is strong demand for the imposition of a nationwide lockdown once again. According to the Center, seventy-three percent of the cases reported are from Maharashtra, UP, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu, AP, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Delhi. It is pressing for the stringent implementation of lockdown norms in the 150 districts where a heavy surge of cases is reported. Haryana and Odisha are the latest to announce lockdown. The several States have promulgated curfews and announced stringent measures. Yet the pandemic is refusing to come under control. Several countries have banned arrivals from India and thus locked the country from outside. The Center should strongly consider the imposition of lockdown in consultation with the States to cut the chain of disease transmission. The Supreme Court too has stated recently that the government should consider imposing lockdown to protect people’s lives. While maintaining that it is aware of the socio-economic consequences of the lockdown, the court has also called for advance measures to shield the poor from hunger. The American public health expert Antony Fauci felt that as the medical and health system of the country has collapsed, it should opt for a lockdown for a few weeks. He has also suggested that India should go for the construction of Covid hospitals on a war footing as China did. He went on to state that the country should also focus on making oxygen, drugs and beds available to the public.
As the PM appointed Covid Task Force has also made similar recommendations, it is time to take immediate decisions to save people’s lives. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry believes that the ferocity of the pandemic will remain for atleast four to five months. In its estimation, the country needs at least two lakh ICU beds and three lakh nurses along with another two lakh junior doctors. While calling for improving the corona testing capacity and intensification of vaccination in coordination with States, the Confederation of Indian Industries has also supported the lockdown proposal. In order to effectively deal with the unprecedented calamity faced by the nation, the Center should consult with States,
consider the problems of the migrant labourers and act with a humane perspective while taking the decision. It should thus stop the mass mortality caused by the coronavirus. Modi should now instead of thinking more, impose complete lockdown if he wants to prepare for the third wave which is said to be more severe.