Best of BS Opinion: Unemployment rate, coronavirus outbreak, and more

The government has said that the Covid-19 pandemic is in the “local transmission” stage. The total number of cases went up to over 1,100 on Monday. Business Standard opinion pieces for the day talk about various aspects of the pandemic.

Without more universal and rigorous testing, it is difficult to gauge the next step: Whether to extend the lockdown, tighten it or end it, argues our lead editorial.

The vital measure required in the current situation is to universalise benefits— access to cooked food for those who have no access to a kitchen, places to hunker down if landlords have thrown someone out, telecom facilities to make calls in case people can't recharge, and free medical testing and protective equipment like masks, notes our second editorial.

The path ahead remains uncertain, but the central case for India and other economies must be a very sharp contraction in economic activity for the coming few weeks as the lockdown bites, followed by a slow recovery as we transition out of lockdown to less strict social distancing, writes Akash Prakash

Hypothetically, if this situation were to continue for the entire month of April, what would the unemployment rate in April be? Zero, or close to that. Because no one who did not have a job will be actively looking for one, writes Mahesh Vyas.

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“I’m surprised to see such reports, there is no such plan of extending the lockdown”

 Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba