Top banker and the president of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Uday Kotak has said that the “strongest” national steps including curtailing economic activity are necessary to stop the raging second wave of Covid-19.
In a statement issued recently by CII, Kotak said, “Given the current pandemic situation, safeguarding lives is of utmost priority and nationwide maximal response measure at the highest level is called for to cut the transmission links.”
“The healthcare infrastructure and supply build-up are being undertaken on an emergency basis by the governments at the centre and states but will take time. At this critical juncture when toll of lives is rising, CII urges the strongest national steps including curtailing economic activity to reduce suffering,” the statement added.
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The industry body went on to say that at the current pace of rising Covid-19 cases, the requirement for hospital beds and ICU beds, oxygen, and medicines will continue to escalate.
The statement suggested that if cases continue to rise sharply over the next few days, it will overwhelm medical personnel deputed to handling the Covid-19 crisis.
“Healthcare and frontline workers are giving their best efforts to tackle the influx of patients, but it may not be possible to manage escalating caseloads with the present medical talent availability,” Kotak said.
“We must heed expert advice on this subject — from India and abroad. Highest response measures are needed to break the chain of contagion and also use the time to rapidly build up capacity,” he added.
Uday Kotak’s statement comes days after top US epidemiologist Anthony Fauci suggested that India should impose a lockdown for a few weeks as an immediate step to contain the rapid spread of coronavirus in the country.
“Our maxim should be ‘no one is safe, unless everyone is safe,” Kotak said.
Not just the CII but the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to impose a nationwide lockdown in view of the worsening Covid-19 crisis.
CAIT’s plea comes days after it conducted a survey of over 9,000 people. At 67.5 per cent respondents were in favour of a nationwide lockdown as they feel it is the only way to break the chain of infections.
Even the Supreme Court has advised the central and state governments to consider a strict lockdown to reduce the unprecedented rise in Covid-19 cases. India has been reporting over three lakh daily cases for the past 12 days. On Monday, the country reported over 3.6 lakh fresh cases and over 3,400 deaths.
