Keeping Up With The Lockdown: Season 5.0

A number of major news outlets have released an update regarding the lockdown situation established across the country. These updates, referring to information communicated by a top government whose identity remains concealed, suggest that the lockdown is going to be extended for two additional weeks beyond the 31st May, 2020. However, there are some changes that many expect, will be instituted in comparison to the previous stages of the lockdown.

This extended lockdown will be focused on 11 major cities, namely Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Pune, Surat, Thane and Jaipur. These cities are said to account for over 70% of the confirmed Corona cases within the country. A possible reason for the aforementioned is that the continued rise in cases has strained India’s Medicinal Infrastructure and Health system.

Critics of the lockdown have questioned the general effectiveness of the lockdown, which has severely hit the economy and failed to flatten the ‘Corona curve’ in spite of decrement in the rise of confirmed cases.

The fourth phase of the lockdown, also referred to as ‘Lockdown 4.0’, was aimed towards restricting the containment zones. In the last 10 days, having seen the reopening of offices, markets, industries and many other services, the government has also resumed bus and air travel provisions under the condition that social distancing norms are strictly maintained.

A change that may be seen in this prospective lockdown 5.0 is the reopening of malls and places of worship. A statement made by the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Shri B S Yediurappa also included strong support for the same. However, many analysts feel that religious congregations and other major gatherings will not be permitted.

A number of states have started looking into the possibility of reopening schools. Although, the central government seems to be against such a move for the time being. Seeing that travel options have only been reopened on a limited basis, it seems to be the case that Colleges and other Educational Institutes will not be reopened during this time.

As the whole nation looks ahead to the Honourable Prime Minister’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address, scheduled on the 31st of May, a number of leaders from opposition parties have publicly criticized the lockdown. Although a number of reasons along the lines of economic and medical insufficiency to go with government inactivity have been sighted, they have also failed to provide any other tangible solutions for India to deal with this crisis.

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