Lockdown

The covid pandemic, which began in Wuhan in 2019, soon spread throughout the world in 2020. Many countries sealed their boundaries to avoid the contraction of Corona. However, various countries’ preventative measures failed, and corona became a pandemic. To further prevent the spread of Corona within the country, various countries like India implemented the policy of lockdown in India. The private and public offices closed down, and the public transport closed. Learn more about the restrictions imposed during the lockdown and how they impacted people’s daily lives.

The spread of the coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic bacon when the first patient of Coronavirus was discovered in the Wuhan area of China. The virus was thought to be limited to China at that time. So as a preventative measure, many countries sealed their borders and didn’t allow people to enter the country. Despite all these measures, at the beginning of 2020, the virus was spread in many countries throughout the world. The nature of the virus wasn’t known very well; hence its prevention wasn’t easy.

At first, it was only a handful of people in each country, but soon every state began to have patients, and later covid was spread in most areas.

Preventive measures like the use of hand sanitisers and masks were implemented. However, the virus was too strong and fast-spreading, and it didn’t slow down.

So, several countries like India began to impose lockdowns. Let us learn about the lockdown in India.

Lockdown in India

The government of India declared a nationwide Lockdown at the end of March the year 2020. Initially, the lockdown in India was supposed to last 21 days, after which the situation would be assessed again, and a decision would be made.

When the lockdown was declared in India, India’s total number of infected people was only around 500. 

It was observed that the virus still spread during the lockdown, and the rate of growth of the virus was reduced due to the restrictions put on public movement during the lockdown in India. The schools, private and public offices closed down, and the public transport closed. Essential services like the groceries and hospitals were allowed to run if they strictly followed the covid protocol.

Hence, after assessment, the government further decided to extend the lockdown until the 3rd of May. This extension of lockdown was approved after the written recommendation of lieutenant governors and governors of all the states.

It was further decided to implement some relaxations based on a few conditions in areas where the spread of the virus was minimal.

Accordingly, the government decided to divide the districts of various states in India into three zones based on how the virus had spread in the state. The green zone, the red zone, and the orange zone were the three zones. The relaxations applied to each zone were different.

After further assessment, the government decided to extend the lockdown to 30 June only for the zones determined as contaminated.

For the areas with minimal covid cases, most of the services would be allowed to start again, and it is called Unlock 1.0, which began on 8 June.

The Unlock 2.02l took place between the 1st of July and to 31st of July. This was followed by many unlock phases called unlock 4.0, unlock 5.0, unlock 6.0 and unlock 7.0.

However, in 2021, another big covid wave infected the country, and various states like Delhi and Uttar Pradesh announced lockdowns like before.

Hence, the lockdown in India began again.

Impacts of the lockdown in India

Even though the lockdown helped decrease the spread of the covid virus, it also had several consequences.

Let us take a look at various impacts of lockdown in India.

• As lockdowns were announced, people in many sectors like the entertainment sector, hotels, tourism, etc., immediately became unemployed and had no way to support themselves.

• Living in the constant threat of contracting the virus, fear of losing jobs, not being able to leave the house, and deaths of loved ones all added to people’s stress during the lockdown in India.

• The GDP and the economy of India were also affected inversely due to the pandemic and subsequent lockdown in India.

Conclusion

The rise of the covid-19 cases in India compelled the government of India to declare a lockdown in India as a preventive measure. During the lockdown, schools, colleges, hotels, theatres, and tourism, all these things were shut down, and only essential services like food grains, media, and police were allowed to run. The lockdown helped in curbing the virus. However, it also had some ill effects. Many people lost their jobs as a direct result of the lockdown. Lockdown restricted the movement of people within their homes themselves, which led to stressed people. The GDP took a hit due to the lockdown.