TN’s modus operandi couldn’t keep up with pandemic spread, opine experts

CHENNAI/ VELLORE: From interventions that did not keep pace with the virus transmission to lack of cooperation from the public, experts cite several reasons why the universal model of lockdown, testing and isolation was not as effective to break the chain of COVID-19 spread in Tamil Nadu.

Though it reported the first COVID-19 case in the country, Kerala managed to quickly keep the number of cases down. At the international level, several Southeast Asian countries brought down the cases in comparatively lesser number of days than Tamil Nadu.

Experts said those countries had earlier dealt with SARS outbreak, which helped them manage the situation better. “They could recover better because of having experienced a similar outbreak earlier. Many countries have pandemic preparedness programmes,” pointed out Dr Prabhdeep Kaur, deputy director, National Institute

of Epidemiology (ICMR).

She added that the public health interventions in Tamil Nadu could not keep pace with the transmission of the virus. One miscalculation was looking at international models without factoring in local scenario. “Lockdown could bring better results in several countries that Tamil Nadu, because our settings include 30 lakh people in slums and crowded markets. The approach on lockdown could have been different keeping in mind the local situation,” she noted.

According to her, lack of cooperation from the public was another factor. “Seventy per cent compliance to masking would yield similar results as that of lockdown. Though lockdown helped the health systems to prepare for spike in cases, people still do not use masks properly. Opening public transport in several districts was another wrong move or it needed better planning,” Dr Kaur added.

Agreeing with her on the importance of masks, noted virologist opined that wearing masks was the more effective alternative to the “draconian lockdown”. He cited a paper published in the US two days ago that revealed how the spread of the pandemic was much less in states which followed mask wearing compared to the states that failed to do so.

“Government complacency was based on the idea that the virus would disappear in 21 days. Even PM Narendra Modi stated so. But it failed to use first 21 days to meticulously plan for the future regarding availability of health infrastructure and trained doctors. We are now reaping the result of that lack of action,” he said.

However, Dr Anantharam Raghavendran from virology department of Vellore’s New Naruvi hospital said if not for the lockdown, the pandemic would have peaked much earlier, putting strain on the health infrastructure. Another reason that several public health workers raised was the lack of coordination among several arms of the government like Local Administration, Health department, Greater Chennai Corporation and Disaster Management.