Lockdown, not a solution, adopt behavioral change in lifestyle- Mundhe

Nagpur Municipal Corporation Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe addressed the citizen’s question through a Facebook live today.
While speaking on whether Lockdown should be implemented in the city or implement strict curfew must be followed as the situations are worsening after the ease of was given under ‘Mission Begin Again’, Mundhe informed that the COVID-19 statistics of Nagpur in the first 3 month that is till 3 June were as follows, till June 3 we had 400 cases and after June 3 there are 400 above cases and is still rising.

The Doubling rate of cases till June 3 was 50 days while now it is 24 days. The Death rate till June 3 was 0.95% while now it is 1.56%, the R0 value which indicates how contagious infectious disease and the rate at which a person transmits the disease to others was 1.1 while now it is increased to 1.2.

“Since the easement was given in Lockdown under ‘Mission Begin Again’ after 45 days we saw 3 times more death rate in the city. We need a lifestyle change, follow COVID complaint guidelines” he said.
“After easement, these Complaint/ guidelines were not followed due to which cases were increasing. The ‘Mission Begin Again’ was given to resume activities in phased manners but we failed to follow rules due to which now we are in a state to implement Lockdown or Curfew in the city. And this has been forced by the people only who are not following the rules. If we do not want to Lockdown then we have to implement behavioral changes in our life”.
“We often hear people talking about following rules and forcing others to implement one but they themselves are seen violating it and not following guidelines. We see around 40-50% not wearing masks, markets were allowed to open on odd-even dates but we see them opening on all days. No social distancing is followed and if this continues we will be forced to close the shops as well” he added.
“We gave easement on lockdown in a regulated form so that one must not have any problem in availing different service but one must avoid going out without any specific reason. We have seen young people of the age 22-25 died due to Covid-19” Mundhe added.
“We have seen shopkeepers not following even-odd days, time restriction, which was implemented to bring a behavioral change in people so we were left with increasing penalty but if it still continues we will lockdown city. If this is not implemented then as we are appealing from the last 8 days we will register an offense against violators under the Epidemic act” he warned citizens.
Speaking on implementing changes in the lifestyle he said that “We have to change now and bring COVID complaint behavior in our lifestyle. While Coughing and sneezing use elbow to cover mouth it will help not to spread the virus. Avoid Crowding as the transmission of the virus is due to droplets”. If these norms are implemented then the active case rates will be decreased, the death rate will decrease.

“We have seen that maximum death was seen among business category persons and it increased after June 3” NMC Commissioner.
“I request Doctors, Hospitals that they must inform NMC if any patient who suffers from Influenza, Breathlessness, cough, cold as it will help us fight the virus, lower the death rate. Do not hide symptoms allow us to treat you and save lives only then we have break Coronavirus chain. We have the equipment, bed, and hospitals ready to treat you”.
“I request all to follow the guideline and do not force us to implement Lockdown and Curfew. Let us Lockdown the virus and put a curfew on the transmission of the virus. I will be closely watching on the activities for next 3-4 days and then will decide whether or not to implement lockdown or not and if these are not followed then I will be left with no other options rather implement a total Lockdown, curfew and only health emergency will be permitted and will be of 14 days” he said.
Mayor Sandeep Joshi in his latest video message also agreed with NMC as he said that “We need to follow the rules made for people in the ongoing lockdown and it is necessary to go among the people and create awareness. We will raise awareness by appealing to the people to abide by the rules till July 31 and if the situation does not improve even after that, we will consider lockdown”.