Coronavirus spike: Is lockdown only option

The district administration Srinagar has once again resorted to strict measures by announcing an imposition of lockdown in areas falling under five administrative wards of Srinagar after a bunch of cases were detected from the places in the last couple of days. However, one wonders the decision of the administration as the lockdown could prevent the virus from spreading, but it can land the poor people to lurch at large. As witnessed in the past, the people living in Jammu and Kashmir faced immense hardships due to the imposition of lockdown and the government has time to time stated that the lockdown is the final option to curb the cases from preventing. There is no doubt that the government wants to fight the virus vigorously, but there is a need to understand and think about the people who are earning their livelihood on a day-to-day basis. One fails to understand why the administration, after stepping up its checking squads in the last two days, decided to go for a lockdown in these areas. It seems that the checking squads have not been able to ensure implementation of the Covid Appropriate Behaviour (CAB) in the affected areas. There are people who want the government to go ahead with the strict enforcement of the CAB instead of announcing Covid curbs as the people have already suffered huge losses in the past two years due to the lockdown imposed by the government to prevent the virus from spreading. Therefore, the government should consider revoking its decision and ensure implementation of CAB strictly in the ground so that the virus is prevented from spreading without pushing the people to the wall.