Lockdown should have been followed up with wider testing for COVID-19: CPI(M)

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury on Friday said a lockdown can help arrest the spread of the coronavirus only if the government backs it up with wider testing to identify and isolate the hotspots.

Speaking to the press via a social media platform, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary said extending the ongoing 21-day lockdown and increasing the economic mess could have been acceptable only if right steps were taken to fight the pandemic.

"Merely extending the lockdown and thereby, increasing the economic misery and chances of people losing their livelihood and nutrition, which is most important to fight this pandemic, cannot be allowed," he said.

Highlighting the three-layered recommendations made by an expert committee set up by the Kerala government as an exit plan from the lockdown, Yechury said it has to be a staggered withdrawal by opening up the clusters that do not have COVID-19 patients.

Even though it has been 17 days since the nationwide lockdown was imposed, the government has failed to increase the number of coronavirus tests, which should have been the primary objective of the lockdown, the Left leader said.

"The lockdown should have been utilised to identify areas to isolate and seal, otherwise we will have an economic crisis along with a health disaster," he said.

Yechury said in India, only 102 people out of every 10 lakh individuals are being tested for COVID-19, a rate that is lower than Pakistan, which is testing 197 people for every 10 lakh individuals.

He said the government should ensure that there are no "starvation deaths" in the country during the lockdown.

"According to reports, 117 people have died due to lack of food or shelter or sheer exhaustion. This situation has to be corrected," the CPI(M) leader said, while pointing out that the Left government in Kerala has successfully provided food, shelter and medical attention to the migrant workers stranded in the southern state by active state intervention.