As most nations are taking extreme measures to control the spread of the dreaded coronavirus, India is now in a 1 billion people lockdown. The highly-communicable virus can spread like wildfire in the poverty-stricken communities, hampered without a world-class health care system.
In the Indian state of Maharashtra, an official stressed that new cases of COVID-19 have been cropping up in small towns, following the infections in larger cities like Mumbai in India.
Rural areas are under-equipped with limited resources to effectively deal with outbreaks. Non-containment in smaller areas are detrimental to lessening the number of cases. The source was a state health official who cannot be identified nor allowed to reveal anything to the press.
As of this reporting, states have enacted their lockdown and stopped all train, with bus transports already suspended. The objective is to get all traffic off the roads.
In Punjab, an Indian state in the north, they are on alert as about 90,000 Indians are coming back home. Many fear that those coming home will bring COVID-19 to the area. This is was revealed by Punjab's top health official Balbir Singh Sidhu, who voiced his concern. Large populations like India cannot afford a large outbreak similar to Italy.
Many Punjabis live in the U.K., the United States and Canada. Bu in winter, they return to visit India. It is possible that most of them are not aware that they are carrying the virus.
Grim and probable statistics from U.S. scientists made an analysis and predicted that if India goes rampant with the coronavirus, infections can skyrocket to 1.3 million by the middle of May.
According to Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Michigan, and one of the authors of this projection, whatever is done to avoid the uptick in India, it will still end in a very painful crisis.
The global count for the coronavirus is grim as there is 489,000 infection and 22,000 have been taken by it, based on a Reuters coronavirus tally.
So far, the number of cases in India is 727 and 20 dead from the coronavirus, based on Worldometers.
The national lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tuesday as one measure to contain the spread of the virus. The directive states that the general population is to stay indoors at all costs and stay there for 21 days. Only the most essential services will be open.
Support for this bold move is supported by a $2 billion to strengthen India's medical infrastructure, and give support to coronavirus cases that may need it, according to Narendra Modi.
Combined threats of the viral spread and the lockdown puts the economic growth of India in direct fire as a negative effect of the coronavirus. India has gotten higher economic growth prior to the coronavirus epidemic, which struck many economies as well.
