Does the lockdown in Visakhapatnam need to be extended?

Six more days left for the partial lockdown to complete in Vizag and a prudent question arises, why not extend the lockdown period for a few more weeks? The neighbouring State of Telangana announced a complete lockdown, permitting movement between 6 am and 10 am only for buying essentials since the partial curfew restrictions were not bringing down the Covid-19 positive cases. With a spike in Covid-19 cases and Vizag ranking amongst the worst affected districts in India, the people of Visakhapatnam see scope for another lockdown and indeed have asked for the lockdown to be extended.

The Centre on Tuesday released a list of the districts which have been showing a continuous rise in Covid-19 cases since the last two weeks. Vizag is one of the 17 districts in India to do so. As per the statistics, cases from 19 to 25 April were 6,267, the numbers rose to 10,257 between 26 April and 2 May and by 9 May, the numbers were a staggering 14,413.

As of today, Vizag has been under a partial lockdown since 2 May for two weeks where people can go out between 6 am and 12 noon, after which no one is allowed to move out unless there is an emergency. There is also an E-pass system implemented for those travelling intra-state and those coming to Andhra Pradesh.

All things considered, people of Vizag have started to wonder if Vizag would also go for another lockdown until May-end. According to public opinion, the lockdown, exempting a few hours of movement, is going peacefully with people’s support. They only worry is about the youngsters who would come back to normality if there is no lockdown and exemptions are removed.

In a discussion with Yo!, Vizagites shared their opinion as follows:

“We haven’t seen any decrease in Covid-19 cases even after a lockdown. Definitely, there is a need for the lockdown to be extended in Visakhapatnam for a few more weeks. As most of them are into work from home, there can be a lockdown till May-end.”

– Shalini, resident of Murali Nagar

“Lockdown can be extended, like the one we are having now with timings exempted in the mornings until the cases have shown a decrease. The timings can be changed like weekdays up to 12 pm and weekends the time can be reduced to 10 am.”
– Sai, who runs a business in Vizag

“The situation now is turning worse and the government should go for another lockdown like last year at least for a few weeks to control the cases. In fact, partial lockdown for two weeks brought changes among the public who voluntarily stayed at home even during mornings. But If the lockdown doesn’t continue, youngsters, especially, will go back to their normal life roaming on the streets.”
– Chandana, Engineering student

“With elderly people and children at home, we are scared to go out unless there is an emergency. But if there is no extension of lockdown, people tend to definitely go out sometime in a day which might again spread the virus.”
-Geeta, Home-maker