General lockdown like last year ruled out; India to peak in 2-3 weeks, says Dr NK Arora

Amid the intensified efforts by the Central and state governments to contain the spread of coronavirus, Dr NK Arora, Head- Operations Research Group of National COVID-19 Task Force, on Wednesday ruled out a general lockdown like last year.

In an exclusive conversation with CNBC TV18, Arora said that as COVID-19 spreads to more states, a national-level peak is expected in 2-3 weeks.

He added that every state is making restrictions and containment plans at the micro, district and city level.

He said that spreading vaccination thin will not help. "It does not help to vaccinate younger people since they largely get asymptomatic infection," he said.

Speaking on the vaccine shortage, he said that the original procurement plan was for 30 crore population, but that has expanded to over 40 crore now.

“200-250 million additional doses are required now that vaccination is open to all above 45,” he said.

Dr Rajib Dasgupta, Chairperson- CSMCH, JNU and Member, Natl AEFI Committee, called for decentralisation of vaccination process and give states flexibility on expanding the same.

He said that the emergence of virus 'variants of concerns' is seen in many districts and there’s a need to devise a town-by-town and district-by-district strategy owing to mutant strains.

Meanwhile, the growing number of daily COVID-19 cases continues to prompt fresh restrictions in several states. Night curfews have been imposed in all of Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Delhi while states like Odisha, Gujarat and Punjab have imposed similar curfews in the most severely affected districts. The Delhi High Court today has also said that wearing face masks will be compulsory inside vehicles, even when travelling alone.

These measures follow the highest daily increase in cases at over 1.16 lakh, of which over 55,000 cases are active. This even as daily testing remains above the 12 lakh mark. During the 24-hour period that the data was compiled, over 59,000 patients have recovered while 630 people have died.

Vaccination data from April 6 shows that 33.4 lakh people were inoculated taking the total number of shots administered to 8.7 crores. The number though is less than the 43 lakh doses given the previous day and remains below the governments stated target of 50 lakh doses per day.

Maharashtra has in fact, red-flagged a vaccine shortage, with the health minister saying that the state will exhaust its current stock in three days.

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