Containing Pandemics in India - Going Beyond Lockdowns

Abstract

In India, despite two full months of lockdown, the number of COVID-19 cases have only kept increasing. Globally too, objective analysis of mortality figures tells us that lockdown as a pandemic containment strategy did not generate any concrete reduction of COVID-19 cases. Here, the paper analyses the origins of lockdown, why it may have been utilized for tacking COVID-19 pandemic now globally, and alternative solutions for the Republic of India. However, the paper is a general critique of the lockdown strategy and the paper's implications can be applied to other nations as well, subject to localized analysis.

Keywords: COVID-19, Coronavirus, lockdown, India, lock down, social distancing, China, virus, economy, migrants, crisis, alternative

JEL Classification: Z10, Z18