Institute Of Language Studies And Applied Social Science,

Vallabh Vidyanagar, Anand

B.A (advanced) Journalism and Mass Communication
Subject Code and Name : of Mass Communication II

Case Study: How India is trying to flatten the Corona Curve through
lockdown
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered
coronavirus. The very first case was determined on 31 December, 2019 in Wuhan, Chaina.
This case study examines how through various measures including a strict lock down has
India been intermediately successful in controlling the spread of Corona Pandemic.

Overview: The first case and the Government's response

India reported the first confirmed case of the coronavirus infection on 30 January 2020 in the
state of Kerala. The affected had a travel history from Wuhan, China . Indian Army set up
a quarantine facility to monitor 300 Indian students returning from Wuhan in
China, the centre of the initial Coronavirus outbreak on 31st January. While the
world had more than 10 thousand corona patients till then India immediately
banned the export of all PPEs including clothing and masks.
There was a negligible increase in the month of February that lead to a a
lethargic response of Indian citizens and somehow government too. It was in
the month of March that the cases had risen up from merely 30 to 694 by 26th
of march. All international visas granted to the nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea,
Japan and issued on or before March 3 and those who didn’t enter India yet then were all
suspended. All passenger carrying trains were suspended from 22 nd March when India
witnessed a steep rise in the cases entering the phases 2 of Corona outbreak which means
the local transmission was started by then.
The average percentage increase in the cases stood at 300 % in the month of March with
the cases rising from 694 to 2069 in a week alone with 53 deaths recorded. On 22 March
2020, India observed a 14-hour voluntary public curfew at the instance of the prime
minister Narendra Modi. The World Health Organisation (WHO) formally
designated Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) a ‘pandemic’ on march 11.
Indian government notifies masks and hand sanitizers as ‘essential
commodity’ until June 30 to check the spiralling prices. The prices had spiked 20
folds on online shopping platforms nearly 8 days before. The government
suspended all existing visas, except for limited categories. This was 4 days
after Italy had gone into a lockdown.
218 Indians, mostly students, were evacuated from Italy and taken to Indo-
Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) quarantine facility in south-west Delhi.The
government followed it up with lockdowns in 75 districts where COVID-19 cases had occurred

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as well as all major cities. Further, on 24 March, the prime minister ordered nationwide
lockdown for 21 days, affecting the entire 1.3 billion population of India. On 14 April, the prime
minister extended the ongoing nationwide lockdown till 3 May. The fatality rate of coronavirus
til 30th April 2020 stood at 3.38%.

Approach towards rising cases and the trends in the world

India has a population of 1.3 billion, and the only country with a bigger population --
China -- had imposed citywide lockdowns, but never a nationwide one.

It was a high-stakes decision. Going into lockdown meant millions of daily-wage

workers would be deprived of an income. But not imposing a lockdown risked
overwhelming India's health care system. One model estimated that without social
distancing measures, about 150 million. India would be infected by June. On Friday,
India's top pandemic official said that the country would have had more than 100,000
cases by now if it weren't for the lockdown.

India moved into lockdown relatively quickly -- it was announced when the country
had reported 519 coronavirus cases.

By comparison, Italy waited until it had more than 9,200 coronavirus cases before it
went into a nationwide lockdown, while the United Kingdom had about 6,700. On
March 11, India suspended all tourist visas, and announced that all travelers who
had been in the most-affected areas of the world in the past few weeks would be
quarantined for at least 14 days. From March 22, all international commercial flights
were banned from landing in India and all passenger train services in the country
were suspended.

The United States, by comparison, has restricted foreigners traveling from China,
Iran, and certain European countries, but there is no blanket ban on foreigners
entering the country. Another useful measure is the proportion of cases that are fatal.
In India, about 3% of cases have died, compared with more than 13% in Italy, the UK
and France, according to JHU. That suggests that India is testing people besides
those with the most serious symptoms.

But India's testing rate is extremely low per capita. Only about 48 out of every
100,000 people have been tested, compared with around 1,175 in South Korea and
1,740 in the US.

Indian is an exception as death rates in major Indian cities are lower compared to
global coronavirus hotspots. Nearly two months after its first recorded case, Covid-
19 infections in the world's second-most populous country have passed 27,000, with
more than 800 deaths. One way to understand the death rate is to track how many
days it takes for total deaths to double.In India, this is currently at nine days - there
were 825 confirmed deaths on 25 April, compared to about half or so of that number
on 16 April. Experts say that's good news. The doubling time for deaths in New York
at the same stage of the pandemic was only two or three days, they say.Many public
health professionals and doctors say India's grinding lockdown, which has lasted
more than a month, could have kept infection and deaths in check.

The World Health Organisation praises India’s response. “I think the commitment of
the Indian government from the top level has been enormous, very impressive. I am

@ Girish Mude, MIT WPU

very impressed that everyone has been mobilised,” says Henk Bekedam, WHO
Representative to India.

During its lockdown frontline workers are still going out every day to win what one
doctor described as "a war India can't afford to lose".

Sources: https://www.who.int/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic

https://swachhindia.ndtv.com/coronavirus-here-are-the-steps-taken-by-india-to-control-.
the-spread-of-covid-19-42304/

https://www.theguardian.com/international
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52039185

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