India must impose ban orders under Section 144 of the Cr.PC and lockdowns across key cities by March 20 to contain the spread of COVID-19, a group of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists urged the Union government on Tuesday.
In a representation, the group said the actual number of cases in was likely between 600 and 2,500, as learnings from Wuhan suggested that the actual undiagnosed cases were five to 20 times of the diagnosed cases.
Community transmission could begin sooner than 30 days from today, and a lockdown now might help save five times more lives in just 90 days.
Also read: Coronavirus live updates | Air India to suspend flights to Europe, U.K. from March 19
Learnings from the 1918 Flu Pandemic indicate that early lockdowns are directly correlated with lower death rate. A delay of just a few days to lock down the city killed 8 times more people in Philadelphia compared to St Louis in the USA, as per the group.
Countries which have acted early were able to "flatten the curve" and bring down cases compared to those which waited and watched. Data from 1918 Flu Pandemic strongly suggested early strong action, it said.
Also read: Coronavirus | State Helpline numbers for COVID-19
Countries which acted early and strongly are performing much better than those which did not. Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand acted early (Learnings from SARS in 2003) Italy, Iran, France and US acted late, waiting very late to impose lock-downs if at all, the group further said.
India has started with good containment efforts, but it is time for stricter measures, it added.
