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After imposing a 21-day nation-wide lockdown from on 24th April, the Government on Monday (30.03.2020) was quick to dismiss speculation that the national lockdown would be extended beyond April 14th, 2020. The Cabinet Secretary, Rajiv Gauba expressed surprise over speculatory reports and asserted that there was no such plan. Reports of the lockdown being extended were fuelled by a fake Curfew Pass document doing the rounds on social media. The fake Curfew Pass showed a validity date up to June 30th, suggesting that the lockdown was going to be extended by more than 2 months. The Government clarified that there have been no such plans of extending the lockdown as of now but did not completely rule out the possibility.
However, it has been reported by sources that two to three days before this cut-off date, a review meeting is likely to be held to look into the current prevailing situation and make a decision on whether India needs to extend this period or can we all get back to normal life.
A study by Cambridge University researchers has listed 4 possible scenarios - firstly, there is a possibility that the 21-day lockdown ends of April 14th and the Government waits to see if the cases surge. The second scenario is that there is a brief 5 day respite after the lockdown ends, the Government then imposes a second lockdown of 28 days to control the spread of cases. In the third, the Government could again give a 5 day respite after the second lockdown and if cases continue to rise, impose another 16 day lockdown. The 4th likelihood is that the Government imposes a 49 day lockout straight away after April 14th. The study further suggests that there is a requirement of a minimum of 49 days to get the situation completely under control.
Whether on not the Government will increase the lockdown period is a tricky question. On one hand is the crisis of the migrants who have been left high and dry with no work at all and on the other is the pandemic crisis which calls for strict measures to prevent its spread.
Some of the important questions to be raised are:
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