Why Bengaluru needs a lockdown urgently
The sudden spike in cases reveals that the government’s contact tracing is no more functional. Health experts fear the situation might spiral out of control if the government doesn’t lock down the city immediately.
After receiving appreciation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for effectively tackling Covid-19 in Bengaluru, the Karnataka government has lost the plot. In the last week, the number of Covid-19 positive cases has gone up significantly with citizens, businesses and even rival political parties calling for a lockdown of the city, which seems to be heading in the direction of Mumbai and New Delhi.
The sudden spike in cases reveals that the government’s contact tracing is no more functional. Health experts fear the situation might spiral out of control if the government doesn’t lock down the city immediately. The government convened a meeting to take stock of the situation and decided to enforce strict lockdown measures only in Bengaluru’s containment zones. However, that will only have a minimal impact because the definition of containment zone has been relaxed. Neither the Health & Family Welfare Minister B Sriramulu nor the Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar attended this meeting.
What Bengaluru needs is a lockdown for at least two weeks to prevent community spread, which the government is strongly denying. Many of their claims of being prepared are falling flat. For instance, it claimed that Bengaluru had more than 2,000 beds available for Covid-19 patients. However, none of the government hospitals in the city is admitting Covid-19 positive cases this week as they no longer have the capacity to give them room. It means that the combined bed capacity for Covid-19 patients in these hospitals is not even 1,000. The government, which did not gauge the gravity of the situation, in a knee jerk reaction, announced names of 52 Bengaluru hospitals for Covid-19 treatment earlier this week. It also announced the wrong phone numbers of these hospitals. With the situation turning worse, it is best if the government implements a lockdown in Bengaluru and strengthens healthcare infrastructure on a priority basis.
(Courtesy of Mail Today)