Policymakers played catch-up, lacked effective strategy: Covid task force

The senior member also said that implementation of the lockdown, meant to contain the spread, was treated more as a law and order issue than a public health one

Even as the nationwide tally of Covid-19 cases crossed 190,000 after a record single-day jump of 8,392 positive cases on Monday, the joint Covid task force of public health experts said the current situation could have been avoided had migrant labourers been let off in the early days when the spread was low.

The task force also raised the issue of opaqueness of the data maintained by the Centre, as well as state governments, saying it had posed “serious impediment to independent research and appropriate response to the pandemic”.

The joint statement by the Indian Public Health Association, Indian Association