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Monday Musings: Facing lockdown 4.0, individually and collectively
Even if lockdown 4.0 means lesser restrictions, we as individuals, families and organisations will need to remain alert and take all the necessary precautions till this crisis is brought to rest
Pune, along with the rest of the country will embark on the fourth phase of the Covid-19 lockdown on May 18, bringing far greater responsibility on us, individually and collectively.
As compared to the first two phases of the lockdown, the third phase, lockdown 3.0, brought far greater relaxation on the restrictions in the non-containment zones. There was greater freedom of movement from home to offices and for making purchases, liquor sales were allowed in many parts of the country and all kinds of shops including hardware, stationery and general stories lifted their shutters.
Last week, industrial estates opened up in Pimpri-Chinchwad, although, with many restrictions such as a limit of 33% workforce. The use of masks, sanitisers and handwash, ban on commuting to the factories by two-wheelers, frequent sanitising of the washrooms, safe distancing between workstations and staggered lunch breaks for workers are part of the Covid-19 SOPs (standard operating procedures) for factories.
As has been very clearly explained in various interviews by Dr David Nabrro, the World Bank’s Special Envoys on Covid-19, what the lockdowns have done is to arrest the spread of the Sars-Cov-2 virus. One of the primary objectives of the lockdown was to contain the virus and prevent its spread. Economic activity, transportation of goods and the movement of people by public transport was brought to a complete halt during the lockdown. The other objective of the lockdown was to prepare the “defence mechanism” of every city and every country to deal with the virus once the lockdown is gradually relaxed and lifted to facilitate the revival of the economy.
The creation of Covid care isolation and quarantine centres with hundreds of beds at Balewadi, Mhalunge and other places, along with dedicated hospitals with Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and ventilators is part of the defence mechanism that is being readied by a red zone district like Pune. As of May 15, Pune has had 174 deaths and more than 3,000 Covid-19 positive cases and the numbers are expected to rise further towards the month-end.
What this means is that even if economic activity is revived and we start returning to our offices partially and gradually a set of precautions will have to be taken by us, individually and collectively. By now we are familiar with the importance of using face masks, social distancing, sanitisers, frequent handwash and not touching our face.
Avoiding crowded places would be important for us, just as our offices will need to enforce the SOPs that would be specified by the government.
Even if there are lesser restrictions during lockdown 4.0, we, as individuals, families, organisations and society as a whole will need to remain alert and take all the precautions necessary till this crisis is brought to rest.
abhay.vaidya@hindustantimes.com
