Coronavirus in India came into major notice in early March and has seen many variations in its growth rate since then. If we talk about the graph (growth rate of COVID-19 versus succeeding time), it was initially exponential. It was until mid-March that the disease turned into a national crisis.
Tablighi Jamaat: A Coronavirus hotspot
The spread saw its peak when the Tablighi jamaat event took place at Nizamuddin Markaz, Delhi. Most of the attendees being COVID-19 carrier traveled across the country without any caution consequently disseminating the virus at a very large scale. Criticizing the congregation, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary (health) had reported that the doubling rate of corona positive cases was 7.4 days which succumbed to 4.1 days after the episode at Nizamuddin’s.
The Plight of Daily Wagers
Also, after the lockdown came into effect, lakhs of daily-wage workers broke on the streets of Delhi after losing their livelihood, demanding to go back to their homes in the hope to get rid of starvation. This large assembling furthermore contributed to the rise of the COVID-19 spread in India. Whereupon, to calm this crowd, Government assured them the allotment of temporary shelters and food and solicited to abide by the harsh decision for a while. However, the assistance is not being delivered properly to the people yet.
Lockdown proves to be helpful
Amidst all the panic regarding COVID-19, Lav Agarwal again came up with his reports last week, this time relieving us a bit. He said, “We have been witnessing average growth factor at 1.2 since April 1 which stood at 2.1 between March 15 and March 13. Hence, there is a 40 percent decline in average growth factor,”. He further added, “Before lockdown, doubling rate of COVID-19 cases was about 3 days, but according to data in the past 7 days, the doubling rate of cases now stands at 6.2 days. The doubling rate in 19 States, Union Territories are even lower than average doubling rate,”.
Let’s hope that we don’t need a lockdown 3.0 and the world heals soon.
