Indian Health Agency Chief Expects The Country To Undergo Lockdown For Up To 2 Months

Illustration of COVID-19 vaccination in India (Wikimedia Commons/Ganesh Dhamodkar)

JAKARTA - India's dark record was broken again, when the country recorded a record daily death due to COVID-19 which reached 4,025 cases, the Indian Ministry of Health reported Wednesday, May 12.

Meanwhile, daily cases of infection in the same report recorded 348,421 new cases, bringing the total number of COVID-19 infection cases in India to 23 million.

Responding to the condition, Head of the Medical Research Council of India (ICMR) Dr. Balram Bhargava said that lockout restrictions should still be applied in all districts, whose infection rates are above 10 percent of COVID-19 test results.

Currently, three-quarters of India's 718 districts have test-positive rates above 10 percent, including major cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai and the tech hub of Bengaluru.

Bhargava's comments are the first time a senior government official has outlined how long the lockdown, which already covers most countries, needs to continue to control the crisis in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has previously avoided a national lockdown, due to economic repercussions and has handed it over to the state government.

Several states have imposed varying degrees of restrictions on economic and public activity, to stop the spread of the virus, which is largely reviewed and extended weekly or fortnightly.

"Cities with high levels of positivity should remain (closed). If they reach 5 percent of the 10 percent (positivity rate) we can open it up, but it has to happen. That won't happen in six to eight weeks, obviously," Bhargava said in an interview at ICMR headquarters in New Delhi, the country's top medical research agency, told Reuters Wednesday, May 12.

Referring to New Delhi, one of India's hardest-hit cities where the positivity rate reached about 35 percent but has now dropped to about 17 percent, Bhargava said: "If Delhi opened tomorrow, it would be a disaster"

Bhargava did not criticize PM Narendra Modi's government's COVID-19 policy, but acknowledged there had been delays in responding to the crisis.

"I think the only dissatisfaction we have is there's a slight delay in receiving a 10 percent (lockdown recommendation), but that's the case," he said.

He said that the COVID-19 National Task Force meeting on April 15 had made recommendations to the government to lock down areas with a positivity rate of 10 percent or higher.

However, in a televised speech on April 20, PM Modi persuaded the state and said the lockdown should be used as a last resort, with a focus on micro-containment zones.

Two senior ICMR officials told Reuters that the organization was frustrated with political leaders handling large demonstrations and allowing religious festivals, saying the action openly violated necessary security measures.

"Our message is completely wrong, out of sync with the situation. We have failed miserably," said one of the officials, referring to the governments"

Bhargava denied there was any dissatisfaction within the ICMR, adding the agency was aligned with policymakers. Without directly commenting on political leaders, he said mass gatherings during COVID-19 should not be acceptable in India or elsewhere.