Rohit Shishodia  
Eminent public health experts have called the lockdown from March 25 to May 31, 2020, as ‘draconian’ asserting that had the government consulted epidemiologists who had better grasp of disease transmission dynamics rather than modelers, it would have perhaps been better served.
They have said that India’s nationwide lockdown has been one of the most stringent and yet Covid cases have increased exponentially through this phase, from 606 cases on March 25 to 138,845 on May 24, 2020, pointing out that had the migrant persons been allowed to go home at the beginning of the epidemic when the disease spread was very low, the current situation could have been avoided.

A joint statement issued by Indian Public Health Association (IPHA), Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM) and Indian Association of Epidemiologists says that with high spurt in Covid cases it is unrealistic to expect that Covid-19 pandemic can be eliminated at this stage given that community transmission is already well-established across large sections or sub-populations in the country.

The joint statement involves approvals from senior doctors of Delhi- AIIMS, Banaras Hindu University and Jawaharlal University, which are government’s own intitutions.

The experts voice apprehension that the returning migrants are now taking infection to each and every corner of the country, mostly to rural and peri-urban areas, in districts with relatively weak public health systems (including clinical care).

“From the limited information available in the public domain, it seems that the government was primarily advised by clinicians and academic epidemiologists with limited field training and skills. Policy makers apparently relied overwhelmingly on general administrative bureaucrats. The engagement with expert technocrats in the areas of epidemiology, public health, preventive medicine and social scientists was limited,” reads the statement.

“India is paying a heavy price, both in terms of humanitarian crisis and disease spread. The incoherent and often rapidly shifting strategies and policies, especially at the national level, are more a reflection of “afterthought” and “catching up” phenomenon on part of the policy makers rather than a well thought cogent strategy with an epidemiologic basis,” added the experts in the statement.

They have recommended that the government should form a panel of inter-disciplinary public health and preventive health experts and social scientists at central, state and district levels to address both public health and humanitarian crises.

The other recommendations include strengthening of public health system/institutions/discipline; optimal PPE for frontline workers; strengthening intensive care capacity; test, trace, track, and isolate; with marked scaling up of diagnostic facilities and resumption of all the routine health services.