COVID spread in India

It’s been 3 months, 1 week and 5 days since Aryavarta encountered it’s first case of COVID-19 on January 30^th, 2020 in southern state of Kerala.

The year of 2020 indeed brought with it sequence of incidents which the centre, state and the citizens of India are struggling with every passing day!

The scuffle against COVID-19 has taken a series of changes ever since the first case and I would attempt to throw some light on the spread and measures taken for the same. As of today i.e. May 12^th, 2020, the infection ratio in India is 1.7 with a fatality rate of 3.24%. Out of a total of 70,756 cases, the nation has come across 2,293 deaths and 22,455 recoveries.

How did the virus spread?

A single case in Kerala on 30^th January rose to three cases on February 3, all three being students returned from Wuhan, China. Rest of February there weren’t any new cases. This soon changed on March 4^th, when a group of tourists returned from Italy with 14 infected members. Similarly, the cases kept on increasing at a slow pace, a large proportion of them being linked to people with travel histories.

The first victim of the disease was a 76-year old man who had returned from Saudi Arabia.

During March 10-12^th, a Sikh preacher who returned after travelling from Italy and Germany proved to be a “super spreader” as he attended a Sikh Festival in Anandpur Sahib infecting masses.

On 31^st March, the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi converted the area into the new hotspot for the virus; 4,291 out of 14,378 confirmed cases linked to this event were recorded till April 18^th. Following this, on April 6^th Mumbai’s Wockhardt Hospital reported 26 nurses and 3 doctors as infected. The hospital was shut down but there was carelessness shown in proper distancing.

On April 27^th, states of Goa, Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura were declared as “COVID-19 FREE” as there were no cases reported.

On May 2^nd, 609 of 4,000 pilgrims who returned to Punjab from Hazur Sahib, Maharashtra were found positive along with 23 bus drivers and conductors who carried them. On May 5^th, a total of 969 pilgrims out of 2,900 more tests, were found positive and recorded.

These events gradually made the virus spread among the masses. 

Summary of test results in India

Samples Tested	1,759,579
Tested Positive	70,756
Tests Per 1 Million People	1,301
Percentage Tested Positive	4%

Measures Taken by the Government of India

Thermal scanning of passengers who came from abroad started from January 21^st, 2020. But the health professionals were well aware that it wasn’t enough and exact. By mid-March 23 ministries were working together to set up additional quarantine and treatment facilities across the nation including Home, Defence, Railways, Labour, Minority Affairs, Aviation and Tourism.

On March 17^th, the Government of India issued an advisory to all the states to take measures for social distancing. A COVID-19 Economic Response Task Force was also formed. On March 27^th, union and state governments set up national and state helpline numbers. 

In April, most of the states made wearing of facial masks compulsory. On April 29^th, Ministry of home Affairs issued guidelines to screen people, quarantine them and ensure regular health checkups. 

Aarogya Setu: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology launched a smart phone application to help in contact tracing and containing the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in the nation. 

The country has been classified into three zones:

Ø  RED ZONE (Hotspots):- districts with high doubling rate and high no. of active cases.

Ø  ORANGE ZONE (Non-hotspots):- districts with fewer cases.

Ø  GREEN ZONE:- districts without confirmed cases or without new cases in last 21 days.

LOCKDOWN

On March 22^nd, on the instance of PM Narendra Modi, a 14-hour voluntary Janta(public)- curfew was initiated followed by lockdowns in 75 districts where COVID-19 cases had occurred. It was further followed by a nationwide lockdown on 24^th March for 21 days.

Also, people were requested to come out in their balconies at 5 p.m. and clap for 5 minutes for health professionals and essential service providers as a gesture of “gratitude” towards their work. This was followed by a second task on 5^th April wherein the citizens of the country were asked to light candles or mobile torches for 9 minutes at 9 p.m. to show “solidarity” in the fight against COVID-19.

On April 14^th, the lockdown was extended till 3^rd May, and on 1^st of May, it was further extended till May 17^th.

Observance

Observers say that lockdown has slowed the growth rate of pandemic by 6^th April to a rate of doubling every 6 days and by 18^th April to a rate of doubling every 8 days.

 Michael Ryan, chief executive director of World Health Organisation’s health emergencies programme says that India had “tremendous capacity” to deal with the coronavirus outbreak and being the second most populous country, will have enormous impact on world’s ability to deal with it.

Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) stored Indian Government with a “100” for its strictness and management.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Ø  It was on 26^th February that India sent 15 tons of masks, gloves and other medical equipments to China through the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Ø  On 13^th March, PM proposed that all the SAARC nations should jointly fight against the rampant and his views were appreciated by leaders of many nations. On 15^th March, he allocated Rs. 74 crore of funds classified as COVID-19 Emergency Fund for the SAARC countries.

   

Ø  On 4^th April the export of HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE was banned in order to stockpile supplies for domestic used but it as partially lifted post the call of American President Donald Trump as he stated how it was required by other nations too.

Ø  On 11^th April, a team of 15 doctors and healthcare professionals was sent to Kuwait to provide assistance.

Ø  On 16^th April, 85 million hydroxychloroquine tablets and 500 million paracetamol tablets were sent to 108 countries from India.

Ø  On 10^th May, the Indian naval ship ‘INS Kesari’ was sent to Maldives, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoro and Seychelles. The ship carried medical teams, essential medicines and food supplies.
     
          This blog gives you the stats and updates as recorded in the country till May 12, 2020.

f   For more information and recent updates, refer to the following wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_India

We, as the citizens of India can be proud of our government, healthcare professionals, the defence officers and ourselves in contributing towards helping the world fight against this rampant. India has managed to keep the spread under control much better than many other countries and this can be seen as a silver lining to our success in winning over the coronavirus. All we need to do is stay in and stay safe.

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