Enough of chest-thumping

Lockdown can't be a substitute for quick action in other areas

The nationwide lockdown is being touted as a necessary step to reduce the spread of COVID-19, given the surge in the infection and the limitations of the Indian health care system. But quarantine and social distancing alone is certainly not enough, evident from the comments made by the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) top emergency expert who said in an interview that countries cannot simply lock down their societies to defeat coronavirus and that public health measures were needed to avoid a resurgence of the virus later on. In any case, a lockdown for three weeks cannot be used as a