The medical fraternity believes that the lockdown imposed by the state government till May 15 was very much needed to break the transmission chain of the deadly Coronavirus, which has infected a large number of people in the last few weeks.

The acting president of Indian Medical Association (IMA), Bihar branch, Dr Ajay Kumar said it was a globally proven fact that lockdown helped in putting a brake on the transmission of the Covid virus.

Moreover, the lockdown would help the hospitals and other health infrastructures to review their preparations and strengthen other resources for providing better treatment, he said, adding that the IMA state unit had already demanded this measure.

AIIMS-Patna director Dr PK Singh described the lockdown as the only effective measure to break the chain of the Covid-19 caused by a respiratory virus which supposedly became stronger and more dangerous after undergoing mutation. He said the first wave mostly affected people of advance ages, but the second is infecting younger ones with more severity.

“All viruses mutate for their survival with improved ability and this natural process made the Covid second wave more deadly. Now, there was no way to disrupt its transmission, mostly through droplets, than imposing lockdown even for a few days,” he said.

“Lockdown is the first medicine to save a society from viral infection,” said Dr NR Biswas, director of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), Patna. Reciting the example of lesser number of countrywide cases in the first wave of the Covid last year, he said it was only the lockdown which had helped the country compared to many other developed nations. Crowded markets and neglect of the Covid protocols worsened the situation resulting in the large number of casualties everywhere, including Bihar, Biswas added.

PMCH’s former superintendent Dr Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said the lockdown would rejuvenate the health infrastructure which had come under huge pressure due to the sudden rush of patients. Many people with minor symptoms reached the hospitals instead of following the general guidelines like home isolation and consultation through telemedicine. However, the lockdown would lessen the rate of infection in both urban and rural areas, he said.

Dr Nitish Kumar Ranjan of Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology (IGIC) said unnecessary and avoidable gatherings and flouting of the Covid protocol worsened the situation, necessitating lockdown. “Mutant virus becomes more deadly and it is true with the Covid-19. Now a check on public movement would effectively help in curbing further transmission,” he said.

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