Lockdown will bring down Coronavirus mortality in India by at least 50%: Devi Shetty

Eminent cardiac surgeon Devi Prasad Shetty on Thursday favoured lifting of the country-wide lockdown after the 21-days spell and limiting its enforcement only in areas reporting high incidences of COVID-19 cases. The Chairman and Executive Director of Narayana Health said, "medically speaking it would not make a big difference" if the 21-days lockdown in the entire countriy is continued.

"But what needs to be done is to keep testing as many people as possible and wherever you find in pockets where there is high incidence, that area should be lockeddown small, small areas by doing this we can contain this (spread of Coronavirus). Whole country need not be locked down (after the 21-days lockdown)," Shetty told PTI.

He said the number of people testing positive for COVID- 19 would continue to increase in India in the next two-three weeks. "Right now, it's manageable." Shetty opined that the 21-day nationwide lockdown would bring down the Coronavirus mortality by at least 50 per cent "..when you retrospectively look back after 3-6 months, whatever would have been the actual mortality, it would be 50 per cent of what it would have been (had there been no 21-day lockdown). I can very confidently say that. The 21-days lockdown definitely made a big difference," he said. Shetty praised the government for being "very, very" proactive in declaring lock-down at a very early stage, noting that Brazil is yet to take such a measure and the US took the step much later.

"I am fairly confident that we will be able to manage (the COVID-19 crisis)," he said..