New Delhi: India has lodged a world record of over four lakh Covid-19 cases on Saturday. The entire country is witnessing unceasing deaths and a severe shortage of basic medical requirements during this pandemic, due to which India's hope seems to be ebbing.
Amid this crisis, US' top epidemiologist and President Joe Biden's top medical advisor Dr Anthony Fauci had suggested, during an interview on Saturday, that India needs a complete lockdown of a few weeks to break the chain of Coronavirus. But is our country actually ready to face another lockdown?
When asked about the matter, Dr Arun Gupta, President of Delhi Medical Council, said, "Last time, the entire situation was different. Coronavirus cases were started getting reported in India. Our health system was not prepared to cope up with that situation. But this time, the virus has been spread all across the country and now it is very difficult to stop it."
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He suggested, "I believe that instead of imposing a nationwide lockdown, its better to do it in limited areas. The rest of the country should focus on prevention, treatment and vaccination. This would be a better strategy for our country rather than a nationwide lockdown."
During the interview, Dr Fauci had suggested that India should get immediate supplies of oxygen, medication, and PPEs. He also said looking at the magnitude of the crisis, India should look at putting together a crisis group that would meet and start getting things organised.
Meanwhile, India's chief opposition party, Congress also demanded that considering the gravity of the Covid situation in the country, adequate steps should be taken by the Government as per the advice of medical experts.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said to ETV Bharat, "Whether we are in power or outside in power, we should go strictly by expert’s advice. We, as politicians are not equipped enough to deal with such questions which require domain expertise. I would respect any expert giving advice given India’s ground reality and that should be followed whoever that expert is. If he or she understands what is going on in India. I hope that our Government will also go strictly by expert advice."
However, Congress Spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh launched a scathing attack on the Central Government for the mismanagement of the Covid crisis both in the year 2020 and in 2021.
He said, "In the second week of March 2020, the Central Government wasn't even ready to call Corona, a pandemic. But then, all of a sudden, it announced a nationwide lockdown on a 4-hour notice. After that, India witnessed a mass exodus of migrant labourers from the cities to their native places. Many of them even lost their lives. But the Central Government only chose to beat thalis after that."
"This Government had no data of how many migrant workers lost their lives, how many businesses got shut, how many people got jobless during this lockdown," Prof Vallabh further added.
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As Dr Fauci, without naming any Government, had said that "victory was declared maybe too prematurely", Gaurav Vallabh alleged, "In January 2021, PM Modi announced in Davos that India has won the battle against Coronavirus, despite of the warnings given by experts regarding its second wave. Today we are not even able to provide an adequate supply of oxygen to the hospitals, majority of states have announced that they have run short of vaccines then how can we announce our victory in such a premature manner?"
The Congress leader demanded, "I want to urge the Central Government to accept its failures and prepare a national policy for conducting vaccination drive all across the country which will ensure that each citizen will get both the doses of vaccine in the next 6 months."
He also asserted that all the states are ready to support the Center in this period of crisis but it has to atleast take the lead and provide relief to the citizens of this country.
