Professors in IISc say that the lockdown was 80% effective in the State

Image source: Twitter

Bengaluru: Even though the two-week lockdown has caused great difficulties for a number of people, but it has already had some positive impact too. The lockdown was brought the surge in Covid-19 cases in control. Professors of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) had observed the spike in cases during the lockdown period and they are of the view that the lockdown was 80% effective in Karnataka. They also advise extending the lockdown as the number of cases in rural areas are significantly increasing.

Sashikumar Ganesan, chairman of the Department of Computational and Data Sciences at IISc said that the State had already passed the peak stage. he said, “The curve is flattening but we do not see the cases coming down immediately.” He added that the department will make new projections on Friday.

Ganesan stated, “The daily cases in the second wave peaked in the first week of May, whereas the active caseload peaked in the second wave. These peaks might become local peaks if we relax lockdown-like restrictions, covid-appropriate behaviour and testing.”
$
In the State, the lockdown was effective in districts like Bidar, Kalaburagi, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Vijayapura. Even Bengaluru saw significant changes as the lockdown was 118 per cent effective in controlling the spread. However, it made no difference in districts like Haveri, Ramanagara, Koppal and Uttara Kannada.

Dr Giridhar Babu, professor and head of epidemiology at the Public Health Foundation of India is of the view that the lockdown would have been more efficient if the government had increased the testing as well. He said, “There is a need to find every probable case and isolate them. That’s the whole purpose of introducing lockdown. The BBMP has been testing 40,000 samples a day. Ideally, it should have been one lakh.” He also recommended conducting random tests which would help in stopping the spread of coronavirus.

In the meantime, the state government is expected to hold a cabinet meeting on Saturday to discuss the extension of lockdown. Few ministers support extending the lockdown.