Opinion divided on merits of closure
PRAYAGRAJ: Officials at the forefront of the battle against Covid-19 in Prayagraj claim that the weekend restrictions have helped check the surge of coronavirus cases in the district. There are also critics of the move who point to the rising count of positive cases and deaths. They maintain that weekend curbs have had no impact on checking the cases and, in turn, have harmed the local economy.
“The weekend restrictions have helped check the surge in the cases and the pattern of positive cases clearly indicates this. Right since the imposition of the weekend restrictions, we have witnessed a dip in fresh cases for few days in a week as compared to other days of the same week. This is because the two days of closure is helping break the virus cycle by significantly reducing chances of avoidable physical contact,” said Dr Rishi Sahai, district nodal officer for Covid-19.
Dr Sahai said that in every household, it was usually people aged between 21 and 60 years who did the bulk of the work outside, including shopping and earning a living.
“The bulk of our 4,500 positive cases as on August 11 fall in this very category. We have 2,143 positive cases in the age group of 21 to 40 years and another 1,417 between the age group of 41 to 60 years. It is these people who are now getting protected during the weekend restrictions, thereby also checking the spread of the virus,” he said.
However, a close look at the data hints otherwise. For the eight days from July 4 to July 11, Prayagraj was conducting around 1,000 tests daily. The district was averaging 2.76 per cent positive cases against total tests conducted. In the immediate eight days post imposition of the weekend restriction, this rate rose slightly to 3.93. Between August 4 and 11, a month after imposition of the weekend restrictions, the district scaled up its tests to around 2,000 per day. The positivity rate has jumped three times to 9.26%.
Prayagraj had 22 new positive cases and a total of 107 active cases on July 4. There were 35 new cases on July 11 and the number of active cases stood at 222. The district had 45 new cases and 228 active cases on July 12. There were 83 new cases and 369 active cases on July 19.
Prayagraj reported 199 new cases on August 4 and the count of active cases stood at 1,610. On August 11, there were 214 fresh cases and the tally of active cases went up to 1,714.
Dr Ashish Mital, general secretary of All India Kisan Majdoor Sabha (AIKMS) and a 1982MBBS pass out from AIIMS-New Delhi, said, “These repeated and unscientific closures, both periodic and long duration, being imposed by the government are severely compounding the problems of common people, including farmers.”