Few weeks’ lockdown in India can break COVID-19 transmission chain: Dr Fauci

NEW DELHI: Top U.S. epidemiologist Anthony Fauci has suggested a lockdown for a few weeks in India as an immediate step to contain the spread of the coronavirus as its deadly second wave shows no signs of ebbing.

Dr. Fauci, in an interview to an Indian newspaper, said another most important thing in the immediate is to get supplies of oxygen, medication, PPEs.

He said looking at the magnitude of the crisis, India should look at putting together a crisis group that would meet and start getting things organised.

Without naming any government, he said one of the things that should have been recognised that “victory was declared maybe too prematurely”.

“Well, one of the things you really need to do, to the extent that you can, is shut down temporarily the country, I think is important. If we want to time out and go back to what I said: there is the immediate, the intermediate, and the long range [measures to contain the virus].

“I think the most important thing in the immediate is to get oxygen, get supplies, get medication, get PPE, those kinds of things but also, one of the immediate things to do is to essentially call a shutdown of the country,” said Dr. Fauci, who is the chief medical advisor to the Biden administration.

He said when China had a big explosion of coronavirus cases a year ago, they completely shut down.

Dr. Fauci said it is not necessary to shut down for six months, but it can be a temporary one to put an end to the cycle of transmission.

So one of the things to be considered is to temporarily shut down, he said.

“Literally, lock down so that you wind up having less spread. No one likes to lock down the country. Well, that’s a problem when you do it for six months,” he said. (PTI)