Lockdown will snap viral transmission chain: Health Experts

New Delhi, March 26 (IANS) Public health experts in India are of the view that the 21-day lockdown, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to combat the spread of coronavirus, was timely and would save the lives of millions.

The country is under complete lockdown, which will remain in force till April 14.

“The lockdown was timely and it will surely break the chain of transmission. These three weeks are extremely critical for our country,” Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairman of the National Council on Healthcare and founder of Medanta hospital, told IANS.

If surveys found an amplified community transmission, the lockdown should be extended, he added.

Assuaging the fear, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had recently said the community transmission had not started yet.

Dr Arvind Kumar, Chairman of the Center for Chest Surgery at Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH), said there would be no contact between people during the lockdown period, which would halt the Covd-19’s geometric progression.

“21 days are enough. The lockdown will turn the possibility of exponential vertical increase in the number of cases to a slow-rise, which our healthcare facilities can manage,” he said.

Kumar, also the director at the Institute of Robotic Surgery, said the median incubation period of the virus was within this period.

“In 14-day, the virus will either die or kill the person infected with it. That’s why the 3-week period is given so that the present volume of infected people will get over it,” the doctor said.

–IANS

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