The ‘Final Countdown’ of ‘Lockdown’! It would have been WISE to Enforce Lockdown than Just Implement It?

The ‘Final Countdown’ of ‘Lockdown’! It would have been WISE to Enforce Lockdown than Just Implement It?

• All the past Lockdowns that Dakshina Kannada, including Mangaluru, saw were of no good results, other than a waste of productive days and loss of income for businesses. Only if the District Administration and Mangaluru City Corporation Officials had seriously cracked down on violators of COVID-19 guidelines during the lockdown, there would have been positive results of lockdown, and also a decrease in the number of positive cases. Everyone took the lockdown easy, flouting the COVID-19 guidelines, by not wearing face masks the right way and not following social distancing- and even today, a day before, the lockdown will be lifted in few hours, people are seen roaming around, and there’s no one to check on them- neither civic officials nor the police.

Mangaluru: Finally fed up with implementing lockdown now and then, Karnataka CM Yediyurappa has finally said “No more lockdown, instead, a stable economy is necessary to fight the pandemic. People can resume work and businesses as usual, outside containment zones. A stable economy is essential for the state to combat the coronavirus pandemic effectively. However, lockdown rules will continue to be enforced in containment zones. However, I humbly request the people of Karnataka — with folded hands — to wear masks and to practice social distancing. This is the only way to combat COVID-19, at least till a vaccine is found,” and this was said in a video address streamed online on YouTube and Facebook.

Reiterating his statement that lockdown was not a solution to contain COVID-19, the CM urged the cooperation of citizens to help the state overcome the crisis situation linked to the pandemic. “The state has adopted the ‘5T strategy’ effectively and will continue to enhance the same — trace, track, test, treat, and technology. Instructions have been given to all testing facilities to ensure results are provided within 24 hours after collection of samples” said CM. But will the people follow his direction to combat COVID-19 is a million-dollar question?

Social Distance flouted by people waiting in the queue near a Fair Price Shop

The Karnataka government has issued an official order for the ‘unlock process’ in the state mentioning curfews will continue on Sundays and during the night hours. As per the order, Sunday curfews will continue until further orders, while night curfew will begin from 9 pm to go on till 5 am. As of Tuesday, Karnataka has cumulatively reported 71,069 COVID-19 cases and 1464 deaths. Of these, 34,943 cases and 720 fatalities have been linked to the pandemic from capital city Bengaluru alone 3649- and its increasing day by day. Now that the lockdown will be lifted tomorrow, what will be the fate of the district, and how will people behave is something which needs to be addressed.

Just look at the photos incorporated in this report, and you’ll see how COVID-19 guidelines are being abused by the people, especially not following social distance. Since there won’t be any lockdown from Thursday, district admin and MCC officials should monitor the movement of motorists and people, and punish those who violate the COVID-19 safety rules. As Team Mangalorean has observed, the cops are only seen making announcements and blaring their siren exactly at 11 am, urging people to go home or shut down businesses- and after that, no cops are seen in the City, whatsoever. District officials and cops should be strict and not take it easy since we have already seen the spike in COVID-19 cases. Even people should cooperate and use their common sense by not abusing the COVID-19 guidelines.

Many citizens had raised their voices saying that lockdown has not served the purpose as community spread is on, and only self-discipline will help. “In the interest of humanity, our leaders or officials should not have asked for a lockdown. Lockdown is not going to stop the spread of COVID-19. It is already in the community and community spread cannot be stopped by the lockdown. In fact, this whole COVID-19 is a farce. And the increase of death toll of COVID victims is less than the deaths due to accidents suicide fever Aids cancer tuberculosis malaria measles individually taken” had said an entrepreneur from the City. So why such a fuss. In the name of humanity take some good expert advice. Let us live normally. Let us be careful. Let us encourage home quarantine. Let us save money. Otherwise, all of us will die out of economic crises. Let’s fight against lockdown. Not for lockdown. Hope people have the interest of humanity more than any party politics.

In conclusion, in my perspective, “All I have to say is that Lockdown implemented by politicians and district administration officials has been of any use to curb the growth of COVID-19 while observing the pandemic’s progression in DK. A periodically imposed short-term lockdowns could only help reduce infection rates but it would only delay the peak, rather than breaking the virus’s transmission chain. It may help space out the infections and hospitalizations a bit, but the only solution to contain the infections and reduce deaths is to massively ramp up testing rates, do extensive contact tracing and quarantining.

In the absence of these measures, lockdowns had a noticeable effect on the trajectories of the total infections/active cases. Impacts of a lockdown can’t be simulated accurately because how the people would comply with the norms is an unknown variable. The same is also true for enforcement of the norms by local administrations. No doubt, these lockdowns had very limited purposes, for sure. Lockdowns by themselves were of very little help unless they are used to ramp up the infrastructure together with increased rates of testing and better quarantining. This is particularly true of these lockdowns we saw or could be seeing, in future-you never know. And if at all, lockdown is going to be implemented, it also needs to be fully ENFORCED! Period.