Number of words: 357<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While India had the world\u2019s harshest lockdown, Pakistan barely had one at all. Indian economist Kaushik Basu proposed a theory where India\u2019s lockdown \u201citself became the source of the virus\u2019s spread\u201d. \u201cBy having people huddle together, infecting one another, and then having the same people travel hundreds of miles, the pandemic has been made much worse than it need have been,\u201d wrote Basu. Calling it a \u201clockdown-and-scatter\u201d policy, Basu argues that \u201csome 4 or 5% of India\u2019s population were literally sent off like sprinklers across the nation\u201d. The fact that India\u2019s lockdown saw cases surge \u2013 rather than drop \u2013 as well the spread of the pandemic into rural India tend to back up Basu\u2019s point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With respect to total cases per million population, India is 1.6 times Bangladesh and 2.3 times Pakistan. In comparison to Sri Lanka \u2013 which has had remarkable success in controlling the disease \u2013 India\u2019s cases per million population is as high as 21.5 times. Matters remain much the same with deaths per million of population. India\u2019s is nearly twice that of Bangladesh and Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even starker: cases in Bangladesh and Pakistan are on the downturn, while they are still rising rapidly in India. In mid-June, for example, Pakistan hit nearly 7,000 new cases a day. That has crashed to 330 for September 8. In the same period, however, India shot up by 9 times, going from around 10,000 new cases a day in mid-June to nearly 90,000 new cases on September 8 \u2013the highest in the world.
India’s neighbour Pakistan has been quite successful in containing COVID-19 Pandemic, so far. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yesterday Pakistan had only 196 new cases. India on the other hand become a global worry, with a new world record of 96760 new cases yesterday. While Modi government undeservedly pats its back for having achieved a COVID recovery rate of 77%. In fairness, the government cannot take any credit for recovery rate because there is no treatment for the disease. The recovery is primarily based on general immunity of the patients. In any case, 77% recovery rate in India pales in the light of the recovery rate attained by Pakistan, which is 96 %.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"