India is moving towards becoming a global Covid Epicenter, lockdown failure

Well-known public health expert Dr. Ashish Jha has claimed that maybe 30,000-50,000 Indians are getting infected every day but only 10,000-12,000 cases are being caught. India is moving towards becoming a global Kovid Epicenter.

‘India will soon be the epicenter of Covid-19.’ This concern is Dr. Ashish K., a renowned public health expert of the world. Jha has expressed Dr. Jha, director of Harvard Global Health Institute, said in a special conversation with India Today TV that it is time to show aggression by washing hands behind the virus.

According to Dr. Jha, limiting testing is a self-defeating strategy. According to him, there may be 30 to 50 thousand cases increasing every day in India, but only a small part of them is catching up.

Is India the next global hotspot?

On this question, Dr. Jha said, “That is the concern, it is becoming a global hotspot.” We are still in the beginning of this pandemic and there are many, many months to come. Probably a year to come in the vaccine. The question before us is what is India’s strategy to slow the spread of the virus? And we know that there are only three things that can make a difference. One – social distancing, whose extreme form is lockdown. Second- testing, tracing and isolation. And third – wearing masks. It is very important that people start implementing it aggressively. We are talking about the beginning of the epidemic and India has made some good progress. Although we are far from where we were supposed to be in testing. I think we all want to know how we will keep from lockdown repeatedly for a year. ”

At the end of last month, Dr. Jha, in a conversation with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, emphasized on adopting aggressive testing strategy in high risk areas. The conversation was part of Rahul Gandhi’s series of dialogues with experts with a global identity to deal with the epidemic.

What do you think about the big picture emerging from India?

On this question, Dr. Ashish said, “I am not worried only about the total number of cases in India. There are still few cases and few deaths in India on capita basis per capita or on. But day to day increase in trajectory, path or curve is very important for me. 10,000-12,000 people are being identified every day. If we compare it with the situation in India only two weeks ago, it is more. And then I wonder what is happening to break this exponential curve? I am concerned that the lockdown has already taken place, outside of the lockdown, there are only a few things that we know in the direction of stopping and slowing the spread of the virus. I am worried whether India is going to be able to do all that? “

Testing rate should be increased in the country

Asked why the number of testing is decreasing and why finding solutions to artificially reduce testing data is a big problem, Prof. Jha said, “The whole purpose of the lockdown was to buy time, which I supported. You are buying time to create a very comprehensive testing and tracing program. And I am worried that India had a long and expensive lockdown, but did not use that time adequately to build the testing infrastructure. And now cases are increasing. This is the time where testing should be done. We should increase the number of testing across the country substantially. I am worried that there are hotspots, which we are missing, because we are not even testing there. So we are not reaching a large number of cases. “

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Tracing of infected people is not possible

On the politics of reducing testing by some states in an attempt to keep the infection figures low, the health expert said, “This is a very self-defeating strategy. We are seeing some issues in Brazil. US President Trump also tried to reduce testing with the same mindset. Here is the bottom line- Testing does not cause cases, viruses do. You can blindfold for some time. But a point will come when it will be heavy. Looking at the Indian subcontinent, I am very concerned that we are missing a large number of cases. The best models right now suggest that maybe 30,000-50,000 Indians are getting infected every day, but we are only able to catch 10,000-12,000 cases. This is not a way to prevent and control the epidemic. We have to be more aggressive about testing. “

Need to overcome virus

Asked if he thinks India will soon overtake the US in number of cases, Dr. Jha said, “This is a matter of concern.” India should show a lot of aggression on the virus, not be reactive. “

Do you believe the Indian government’s claim that we are not in the community transmission stage? In response to this question, Dr. Jha said, “Of course, India is in community transmission. Why is there any question about this? This is distracting. We need to focus on how we control the virus. “