Is lockdown only the solution?

Is lockdown only the solution?

We are facing another one week lockdown in the Kathmandu valley beginning Bhadra 4, 2077 (Aug.20/2020) to control rapid spread of COVID 19. Soon after easing three months lockdown, movement of vehicle and people from tarai and other parts of the country to the valley increased uncontrollably without taking any precautionary measures from the government concerned offices. Also the local people were not following simple safety measures to avoid virus infection. As a result, the number of infected persons started rapidly increasing in the valley and elsewhere in the country. 

According to the health experts, the government did not make any effort to increase tests, contract tracing and establish required number of proper quarantine, increase isolation wards and ventilators in order to face the possible worst situation during the three months lockdown. That is why; simply imposing lockdown for an indefinite period may not be effective to control spread of virus. In that case, government has to be more proactive in its actions if it is really interested and serious to stop more people infected with and dying of this deadly virus. Otherwise, the situation seems going to be out of hand for which the government has to be mostly blamed for its inefficiency and negligence. 

August 21, 2020 https://tkpo.st/32aS3ht

Restriction not a solution to virus spread, proper response and preparation needed, experts say

 

Districts including those in Kathmandu Valley may have been under strict restrictions, but unless authorities fully utilise this period to increase tests and ensure contact tracing and pull out all the stops, it could be yet another opportunity squandered, public health experts say.

Multiple doctors the Post spoke to said that the virus has taken hold in the community and that an effective contact tracing is the only way to break the transmission chain.

“We all know a lockdown or restriction for an indefinite period is not possible. Nor is it a solution to the pandemic,” said Dr Madhu Devkota, a professor at the Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University. “We have to prepare.”

According to Devkota, the past lockdown is an example of how the government failed in the fight against the virus.

“The lockdown was imposed in haste and lifted without any planning,” said Devkota. “We are facing the consequences now.”