White House adviser recommends lockdown in India
Press Trust Of India
Terming the situation in India “very desperate”, the US’S top public health expert Dr Anthony Fauci has suggested the government marshal all its resources, including the armed forces, to immediately build makeshift field hospitals, and urged other countries to help with not only materials but also
WASHINGTON:
personnel.
In an interview to PTI, Fauci, who is the Chief Medical Adviser to US President Joe Biden, also called for a nationwide lockdown, not necessarily for six months but “for a few weeks” to break the “continuity and transmission of infection.”
“A few days ago, I recommended and I believe at least parts of India are doing it, that you shut down the country in lockdown,” he added. Fauci’s suggestions and dire assessment of India came as the number of new Covid-19 infections in India passed 20 million, almost double the number three months ago. Of these more than 2,20,000 people have died, according to official figures.
The US has recorded 30.2 million cases and 5,77,000 deaths in a population that’s one-fourth of India’s 1.2 billion since the pandemic began.
“It is quite obvious to everyone that the situation in India is extremely serious,” said Fauci, who is considered one of the world’s top infectious disease specialists.
“When you have so many people getting infected… the lack of the capability to take adequate care of everyone; when you have shortages of hospital beds and oxygen and shortages of supplies, that really becomes a very desperate situation. Which is the reason why we feel it’s important for the rest of the world to help out, to the extent they can,” he said.