COVID-19 India: Timeline and Proactive Measures against the Lethal Virus

The global pandemic of Coronavirus allegedly originated from the city of Wuhan in China. The carelessness of the Chinese government to declare the early caveats related to the deadly disease has barred many countries to take prompt actions. Consequently, the virus surge into different countries shook the global economy and took many lives. Even a powerful country like America is wrestling to save its people. The global COVID-19 reports, as on May 2, 2020, includes 3,427,265 confirmed cases, 240,513 deaths and 1,094,066 recovered.

Timeline of the disease

When the first case of the coronavirus outbreak in India was confirmed in Kerala (from student returned from Wuhan University, China) on January 30, Indians woke to the possibility of getting the disease as the most insidious and highly transmissible virus was crossing through a densely populated land. By Feb. 3, the cases rose to three and the next day, the Kerala government declared coronavirus a “state calamity”. On Feb. 11, the World Health Organisation (WHO) officially named the virus “the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19”. February proved to be a bit relaxing but the horrendous phrase of the epidemic was yet to come.

March 4 witnessed a sudden rise of the cases to 29. On March 11, WHO declares coronavirus a pandemic. The first COVID 19 death was confirmed in Karnataka on 12 March and on March 14, the Central government declares COVID-19 a ‘notified disaster’. The transmission of the virus escalated during March not only in India but globally, most of which were linked to people with a travel history to the affected countries. The country’s total number of cases was recorded at 1,071 and the number of deaths touched 29 at the end of March in which Maharashtra was leading in its daily counts.

The worst vector emerged against the fight when the Nizamuddin Markaz defied the complete lockdown with over 3400 people attended the Tabliqhi Jamaat event in the capital city on 13 March. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 4,291 out of 14,378 confirmed cases were linked to this event in 23 Indian states and union territories until 18 April. The escalation of the virus continued to rise in April and became worse. On April 18, 2013 new cases and 35 new deaths were recorded, which is the highest recorded single day new cases in April. By April 30, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that 33,050 have been tested positive for COVID-19, 1074 died and 8,324 have been cured. The highest numbers of cases have been recorded from Maharashtra.

On May 1, Coronavirus cases were recorded at 2394 new cases and 69 deaths in India. May 2 marked new cases at 2411, which is the highest single-day rise in India from when the virus has hit the country. On May 2, the highest number of cases is recorded from Maharashtra at 11506 followed by Gujarat at 4721, Delhi at 3738, only one case has been recorded from Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, which is the lowest till date.

Combating measures against COVID 19

Proactive measures by India have been initiated from January itself. Thermal screening of passengers coming from China and Hong Kong was started much before the first case was detected in India on January 30. The ‘thermal screening’ was later extended from 7 to 20 airports while around 33,000 passengers had been screened by the end of January. Besides the National Institute of Virology (NIV), four other laboratories were equipped for testing positive cases coming in. The government had also placed a “comprehensive response system” at its borders much before the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus as a public health emergency of international concern on January 30. During February, the screenings were extended to passengers from Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. All visas were suspended on 13 March, except diplomatic and other official visas, as well as the visa-free travel for Overseas Citizens of India, ahead of any other countries. Indians returning from COVID-affected countries were asked to be in self-quarantine for 14 days. On 17 March, the Union Ministry of Health had decided to allow private pathology labs to conduct the test for COVID-19 to double the rate of testing. Thus, issued guidelines for the NABL accredited laboratories to commence the testing soon.

Noticing the escalation of the ruthless virus, many state-based measures were also taken before the Central government’s announcement for national lockdown. All public gatherings were banned in Kerala and classes up to class 7 were suspended when the state recorded 8 new cases on March 10. Further, the state government launches ‘Break the Chain’ campaign to ensure hand hygiene. The governments of Karnataka, Manipur, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan initiated the announcements of the closure of schools, colleges, gyms, shopping malls, swimming pools, theatres, pubs, and issuance of prohibitory orders on public events to contain the virus. The Odisha government declared the outbreak a ‘disaster’. On March 16, the Central government of India ordered all institutions, shopping malls, theatres, gyms to be shut till March 31. On March 22, “one day Janta Curfew” was observed by India.

While the virus was intensifying globally, Government came into action immediately to curb it at its early stage. It sealed all cross-national borders and railway operations were suspended.  All educational institutions, gyms, malls, clubs, hotels, community halls, etc. were closed. However, due to the increased risk of the spread of the virus, on March 24, PM Narendra Modi announced the 21 days national lockdown, asserted the significance of social distancing, and self-quarantines to curtail the community transfer of the virus. All transport services including road, rail and air were completely suspended during the lockdown. Further, the Centre also allocated Rs 15,000 crore to strengthen the health infrastructure of the country. Taking the full control of the disseminating panic, the provisions of the 123-year-old law- the “Epidemic Disease Act” was invoked by the Centre. Under the Act, the government can freely fine or imprison people for infringing rules and regulations of the lockdown. The government also strives to provide authentic information on the virus, which includes its spread, preventions, guidelines, helpline numbers, registered, death and cured cases on its official website. The government has designated 72 centres across the country for the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. The Union and the state governments have set up national and state helpline number to combat the individual problems at-home quarantine. The state governments have been urged to regularly maintain and further improve upon the surveillance so that the coverage is complete and there are no gaps. A meticulous system has enabled states to track down individuals who tried to avoid surveillance or who did not follow quarantine measures,” the government said.

To tackle the problem of limited isolation ward, more than 20,000 railway coaches are converted into isolation stations. Various emergency financial measures were undertaken by the Reserve Bank of India too. Moreover, to help low-income households, migrant workers and daily wageworkers, the government had issued relief packages worth Rs. 1.7 lakh crores for food and direct cash transfers. Further, it opened shelter homes and other securities for them. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology launched a new smartphone application ‘Aarogya Setu’ to help in “contact tracing and containing the spread” of COVID-19 pandemic in the nation. Movement and supply of essential goods were promoted across the nation. Rigorous screening and testing were conducted in India, including the low inflected areas. Many testing kits were also imported from other countries like China.

On 14 April, the government extended nationwide lockdown till 3 May, with a conditional relaxation from 20 April to slowly getting back to business and resume activity. Phase 2 of the lockdown marked new changes as the intensity of the contagious virus grew despite government stringent measures and a complete halt to the economy. Hotspot zones across India have seen a drastic rise to nearly 100 districts in phase 1 of the lockdown, complicating the efforts to contain the disease. Around 204 districts were called the emerging hotspots, according to the Health Ministry. Thus in phase 2.o of the lockdown, many Indian cities and states have made wearing facial masks compulsory, failure of which can make a person liable for punishment. The distribution of relief packages for food and direct money transfer continued. The government urged its people to unite and extend their help to the needy people, transfer money in the PM Relief Fund and the State Relief Fund and together combat against the ruthless virus. On April 27, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has closely monitored the circumstances claimed that India’s month-long lockdown has saved lives and yielded positive results during a video conference with other heads of state. On 29 April, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued guidelines for the states to allow inter-state movement of the stranded persons. States have been asked to designate nodal authorities and form protocols to receive and send such persons. States have also been asked to screen the people, quarantine them and do the periodic health checkups before dispersing them.

On May 1, the Ministry of Home Affairs extended nationwide lockdown further by two weeks till 17 May and divided the entire nation into three zones that is Green Zone, Red Zone, and Orange Zone. A new set of guidelines has been issued for providing relaxation in these zones accordingly. The Green Zones are those areas with zero confirmed cases till date or no confirmed cases in the last 21 days. The Orange Zones are the areas that are neither Green Zones nor Red Zones. The Red Zones or Hotspot districts are defined by the Health Ministry after considering the total number of active cases, doubling rate of confirmed cases, the extent of testing and surveillance feedback.

Many novel “Corona warriors” came forth to help people in need of food, money, shelter and other essential commodities including face mask. These “corona warriors” includes doctors, police personnel, social workers, media personnel, health workers, sanitation staff, security staffs and other people who extended their aid in this pandemic. Many doctors and police personnel on duty are even tested positive. As stated by the latest report, 127 CRPF personnel are tested COVID 19 positive including 1 recovered and 1 death. As on April 22, at least 96 doctors and 156 nurses have been tested positive for COVID 19 across the country. On May 3, armed forces have decided to flypasts and shower flower petals on hospitals treating coronavirus patients to boost the morale of the doctors, health workers, sanitation staff, security and media personnel. According to the reports of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, there are 130 identified red zone districts, while 284 orange zone districts and 319 green zone districts, post May 3. This list was prepared during a meeting called by the Cabinet Secretary with all Chief Secretaries and secretaries of the Health Departments on April 30.

India’s response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been pre-emptive, proactive and graded. However, the 21-day nationwide lockdown was announced without any proper planning. This is evident from the fact that soon after the nationwide lockdown thousands of immigrant labourers were stranded across the country without any resources. Many people started either walking or cycling miles to reach their homes. Again, the poor medical infrastructure and health emergency fund was another discrepancy, signals worrying effects. Many experts throughout India expressed this concern. They feel that we are seriously under-tested, roughly about four per million people. Professor Ramanan Laxminarayan, a senior researcher at the Princeton University had informed that with given India’s size, it should have tested at least 10 times the current numbers – about 20,000 per day at least, in an interview conducted by the business today dated March 18. Besides, he also had mentioned that there is no point in blaming the government because this is how the virus has been presenting itself. The alarming feature the coronavirus cases are the asymptomatic patients as due to lack of testing kits and limited medicals facilities are only capable of testing symptomatic patients. Consequently, the asymptomatic patients end up unintentionally spreading the virus.

Student Reporter, INBA

Kumari Simran

REFERENCE: livemint, the hindu, economictimes, jagronjosh, indiatoday, mygov.in, worldmeters, india.gov.in, pmindia.gov.in, Wikipedia, businesstoday, outlookindia, the week.in.