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Tamil Nadu reimposes lockdown in Chennai, 3 other districts
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, panel members said that they warned that Tamil Nadu could have a second wave, as it has been observed in China.
Three days after the state government told the Madras High Court that there would be no lockdown and threatened criminal action against people spreading such rumours, Tamil Nadu on Monday announced a lockdown from June 19 to 30 in its worst affected districts, after an expert panel warned the government that the state has hit its peak, but may hit another if strict measures aren’t followed immediately.
On Monday, a panel of 19 medical experts advising the Tamil Nadu government on the coronavirus pandemic met Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, senior ministers and bureaucrats at the secretariat for the fifth time since the lockdown began in March. Chief Scientist at the World Health Organisation (WHO) Soumya Swaminathan also joined the hour-long meeting over video conference. The panel, which comprises Chennai-based National Institute of Epidemiology deputy director Dr Prabhdeep Kaur and Dr V Ramasubramanian, and infectious diseases expert at Chennai’s Apollo Hospitals among others, told the government that the spread of the infection in Tamil Nadu is at its peak now and the number of cases will gradually come down.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, panel members said that they warned that Tamil Nadu could have a second wave, as it has been observed in China, where at least 43 new cases of local transmission of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) were recorded in Beijing last week, after a gap of at least two months if the spread of the infection was not arrested through strict measures.
“In the past three weeks, there has been an increase in the positivity rate of the infection in these four districts and in the last two weeks, there is a slight increase in deaths too,” Kuganantham told Hindustan Times. “To avoid an alarming situation we had to go ahead with this strategy. We need the support of the community to fight an epidemic or a pandemic. Else we have to press regulations.” The panel has asked the government to increase testing and manpower and intensify containment and quarantine measures.
Following the meeting, Palaniswami held a cabinet meeting later in the day and announced another lockdown for Chennai and the three adjoining districts of Chengalpattu, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram. Till June 15, these four district accounted for 83.69% of the state’s total caseload. Chennai alone accounts for 71.49% of all cases in the state.
Yet some experts believe that lockdown is not the only strategy that the government should follow. “A lockdown only slows down the epidemic,” said Dr Jacob John, retired professor and former director of the Indian Council of Medical Research’s Centre of Advanced Research in Virology. “When HIV/AIDS broke out we didn’t ban sex, we made sex safe. Similarly in this context social contact should be safe and protected and not totally prohibited. The government should make people participants by focusing on social and behavioral change. The virus spread is inevitable and the next wave will start in rural areas which will not be protected because Chennai is under lockdown.”
In the new lockdown, flights and trains services will continue, but autos, taxis and rental cabs can only ply for essential services and medical emergencies in the four districts. Restaurants will now go back to serving takeaway food. Grocery shops and petrol pumps will be open only from 6am to 2pm. Taking a leaf out of Karnataka that in May had implemented total lockdown on Sundays, Tamil Nadu too will not have any relaxations on the two Sundays that fall within this 12-day lockdown period.
