Lockdowns are not a strategy to combat Covid-19 : AIMIM Chief

Taking on the micro boggling platform Twitter, Owaisi stated that “as data shows, Covid-19 cases were already reducing much before lockdown was imposed on May 12. It is quite clear that it is not the lockdown that helped control the pandemic. It is also clear that Covid-19 can be combatted without lockdown.

He strongly urged the Telangana CMO to not extend the lockdown. If the goal is to reduce crowding, then we may consider evening curfews from 6 pm onwards or mini-lockdowns in Covid-19 clusters.

But expecting 3.5 crore people to live for weeks with just a 4-hour lockdown relaxation is not fair at all, he said in a series of tweets before the Telangana State Cabinet met to take a call on extension of lockdown.

The only long-term solution is universal vaccination. Lockdowns give a cruel choice to the poor, poverty, police atrocities or pandemic.

They make a public health crisis into a law and order problem. They are neither a scientific nor a humanitarian strategy, he stated.

We have to accept that the pandemic is a long term reality. One can combat it only by educating the public about mask use and social distancing and tweaking government policies to encourage and enable such lifestyle change.