India Coronavirus Dispatch: Expert says lockdowns were counter-productive

From creation of a database of health workers to an indefinite doctors' strike against non-payment of salaries, here's how the country is dealing with the pandemic

A transformed Durga Puja: Durga Puja sites this year have presented shocking visuals to pandal-hoppers. Pandals in West Bengal have been set up in a manner that allows visitors to see the idol while respecting Kolkata HC order banning pandal entry for visitors due to the pandemic. The artwork and extensive decoration within pandals is something that visitors miss witnessing this time. Visitors, however, are happy that restrictions have been put in place. Roads leading to pandals are not choked by traffic and there are no queues around them, either. Policemen sit outside in groups to ensure Covid norms are adhered to. Separate roads have been designated for entry and exit. In some places, the police, volunteers and organisers outnumber visitors. Read more here.
 

Health workers' database: The central government has started the process of creating a database of workers in healthcare sector. The database is being created for making it possible to administer Covid-19 vaccine whenever it becomes available. The government shared a standard template with state and UT authorities. Officials have also been asked to identify beneficiaries for Covid-19 Vaccine Beneficiary Management System (CVBMS). Further, workers have been categorised as frontline workers, paramedics, medical students and so on. The workers can be from both government and private healthcare facilities. ASHA workers and staff nurses have also been included. District authorities have been tasked with the duty of collating all the data. Read more here.
 

Doctors’ strike: On Friday, five doctors of Delhi’s North-MCD run Hindu Rao Hospital began a hunger strike. The protests were called to demand payment of their pending salaries. The doctors have been demanding the payment of due salaries and also want a fixed date by which their salaries will credited every month. “We don’t care about the politics behind this,” says one of the doctors. On October 13, the NDMC-run Hindu Rao Hospital was removed from the list of the designated Covid-19 hospitals. Further, Covid patients from the hospital were shifted to govt hospitals following the strikes. Read more here.
 

Pune’s pandemic: Authorities in Pune will review the Covid situation in the district and then decide on freeing up hospital beds meant for patients suffering from Covid-19. Maharashtra government had given the authority to the administration to regulate up to 80 per cent beds. The review has been called for given the downward trend of new Covid cases in recent weeks. Hospital authorities have been demanding the freeing up of these beds. Officials will review the situation on October 26. A hospital director says that number of patients had declined by more than 60 per cent. Other hospital heads have also witnessed huge drops in the number of Covid patients. Read more here.
 

Comment

Lockdowns don’t work: The columnist says that countries around the world undertook harsh measures such as lockdowns on the advise of experts. This was despite the fact that WHO chief Dr Tedros stating that history does not have a precedent for controlling a pandemic. Statistics post lockdown saw that the measures were massive failures. Papers by leading experts on the issue and past epidemics also do not mention lockdowns as a precautionary measure. A study of data, he says, would show that lockdowns were counter-productive. He further adds, “It is likely that post-Covid, epidemiological experts will suffer a worse fate than economists did after their Waterloo in 2008”. Read more here.