India has already gone through one-third of the lockdown period imposed till April 14. The first week of the lockdown, imposed in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, witnessed quite a few noteworthy events. Citizens around the country are already questioning if the lockdown will be extended.
A recap from the week that went by:
More positive cases emerged
From 469 active cases on March 24, India now has 1,637 positive cases as of 3 pm on April 1. Additionally, 10 deaths had occurred till the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the day lockdown; the death tally now stands at 38.
So far 1,168 new positive cases and 28 deaths have occurred in the first week of the lockdown. Average estimates indicate that 168 new cases and four deaths were reported every day during the week.
New clusters identified
In most nations reeling under the perils of COVID-19, the case count jumped exponentially high after health workers discovered a group of people who got infected at one place and mostly at the same time. Such groups are termed “clusters”.
For instance, the majority of the infections in South Korea emerged from a church frequented by an infected woman.
India last week found one such massive cluster in a religious congregation held in March in south Delhi's Nizamuddin area.
Reports suggest that close to 150 cases have originated from this cluster. More than 70 positive cases in Tamil Nadu have emerged from this cluster alone. The fallouts from this congregation have been reported in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Telangana, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Sixteen more smaller clusters have been identified in Kerala, Rajasthan, Punjab and other states.
More deaths in a week due to lockdown than Covid-19
At least 17 migrant labourers and their family members, including five children, died in the course of their desperate efforts to return home since Modi announced on March 24 that the lockdown would commence at midnight.
Aside from these deaths and two other fatalities, an 11-year-old boy reportedly died of hunger on March 27 in Bhojpur area of Bihar as the family could not arrange for food due to the strict implementation of the lockdown.
Kerala, which has been battling coronavirus for two months, has seen just three deaths from the infection so far, but within a week of non-availability of liquor due to lockdown, seven people committed suicide.
Karnataka followed a similar script — four people committed suicide due to non-availability of alcohol.
While coronavirus killed 28 people over the course of a week, the lockdown managed to eliminate 32.
India lagged behind on testing rates
While the rate at which positive cases emerged in India remained low, some also attributed it to the country's abysmal testing rate. Till last week, India was testing merely 18 individuals per one million of its population.
Experts have argued that India’s low number of cases could be because of limited testing and the actual figures of infected people may be higher.
Apart from China, in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Italy and South Korea, which saw a meteoric rise in confirmed coronavirus cases, the rate of testing is much higher compared to India.
For instance, Italy performed tests at a rate of 5,268 per million of the population. UK performed 1,469 tests per million people.
Similarly, South Korea, which witnessed a sharp rise in cases but eventually managed to contain the crisis, had performed 3,57,896 tests at a rate of 6,931 tests per million people.
Even within India, according to an analysis by IndiaSpend.com, states and Union Territories with more testing centres and performing more tests have reported a higher number of cases.
Salary cuts, deferred payments
In an effort to keep the liquidity in state treasuries intact, state governments asked their employees to bite the bullet and either announced pay cuts or deferred their salaries.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced that him and his other MLAs will take a 60% pay cut. Grade A and B officers will face a 50% salary cut.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, his ministers and MLAs will take a 75% salary cut. The state corporation chairpersons and local bodies representatives will also take a three-fourth salary cut.
Civil servants in the administrative, police and foreign services along with other central service officers will have to take a 60% salary deduction. All other categories of employees, including retirees, in the state will see a 50% in their pay.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's cabinet passed a resolution to defer 75% of his gross salary and that of his ministers and MLAs in view of the economic burden on the state due to the pandemic. It decided that 60% of the salaries of IAS officers and 50% of state services will be deferred. At least 30% salaries of pensioners will also be deferred.
The Odisha government said there will be a deferment of 70% gross salary of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, his ministers and MLAs, and chairpersons of all corporations and elected representatives of local bodies. There will also be a deferment of 50% in the gross salary of All India Service Officers such as IAS, IPS and IFS.
The Andhra Pradesh government announced deferment of payment of full salaries to the chief minister, other elected representatives, officers and other state government employees.
All India Services officers will see a 60% deferment in their salaries, while all other employees will get only 50% of their pay.
These measures are being taken at a time when the states are already fund-starved. GST compensations, for example, which are supposed to be paid at the end of every two months, have been pending for many states.
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