Physical distancing, not social distancing, key to living with the virus

The third instalment in Urban Update’s webinar series of e-Dialogues focused on deliberating a suitable path forward for cities. After an extensive period of the lockdown, which effectively shutdown movement of people as well as many businesses, now the government is moving forth with relaxing norms. These relaxations will ultimately lead to a complete lift and resumption of life as we knew it before Corona. As we reopen cities, positive cases, and casualties, continue to rise. Given this extremely difficult situation, Urban Update invited Dr Rakesh Yadav, Professor, AIIMS-Delhi; Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar, Chair, Urban Resilience at National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), to discuss the path forward with Ashok Wankhede, Managing Editor, Urban Update and Abhishek Pandey, Editor, Urban Update. Kumar Dhananjay, Consulting Editor, Urban Update, moderated
the session.
Introducing the relevance of the issue to the audience, Dhananjay said that at present we are confronted with multiple questions as we move forth: how many more renditions of the lockdown can we further bear? How do we deal with the severe economic consequences that we are likely to face? “Is it time to face the fact that life will go on with the virus, as no hope for a solution to this issue is apparently visible. When can we resume normal activities?” Dhananjay enquired and invited Ashok Wankhede to give his opening remarks. Wankhede asserted that Corona is here to stay. “After the two month lockdown, cases continue to increase. Now, as we look forward to reopening, we must take adequate precautions. Obama said I am lucky to have a great office in my home. “We share the same luxury as the President of the USA for an extended period of time as of now,” he said. Along with working from home, Wankhede said we are set to adopt multiple changes in our lives moving forward.
Dr Rakesh Yadav, like the speakers before him, was of the thought that the virus is not going to go away soon, it’ll persist and hence we’ll have to live with it. “Nobody knows much about the virus. Everyday you get a new guideline. Everyday a new estimation is made. Somewhere it is very dangerous, somewhere it is just a flu virus”, Dr Yadav said, describing the uncertainty of the pandemic. He urged people not to panic. “Anxiety has taken over and people are getting more and more scared.
This fear is not substantiated by medical research and only propagated by mainstream media.” Further, Dr Yadav expressed that vaccine is the only solution, and the development of this vaccine at this stage is uncertain. Hence, reopening is a wise step. “Reopen but with caution. A percentage lives in slum, they use common toilet. Educate them about physical distancing, not social distancing,” he said.
“As we reopen, we face the challenge of accurately ascertaining corona positive people, as a large percentage of people suffering from the disease are asymptomatic. Thus, reopening will obviously increase cases, but till now the previous two months spent in the lockdown have allowed us to develop infrastructure,” he added. Further, the doctor said that the policy is to live with the virus, and that a complete lockdown was never a solution. Moving forward, medical professional like Dr Yadav recommend using mask, regularly washing hands and avoiding gatherings and large crowds. If you have any symptom, report it to relevant authorities.
Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar, in his address, urged people to look at short term requirements post COVID-19 and long term amends that could
be made. “It is important to keep on living, albeit differently. Pandemic can not be contained unless a cure is developed. Hence, we should take a step back and address preparedness issues that have been apparent,” he said. Highlighting long term lessons from the pandemic, he further highlighted how the medical systems have been caught off guard during the crisis and how cities need to take lesson from this and take it as a wake up call to look at how we can better integrate health departments within urban planning and municipal corporation. Outside of a few examples, no city corporation has power over the health systems. “Rethink the approach towards urban planning and include healthcare infrastructure for the future,” Rajasekar concluded.
Given the conditions, Rajasekar said that we must accept that cases will sharply increase once the lockdown is lifted even partially. “It is essential to maintain physical distancing. Urge to resume life overpowers the minimum protocols and hence the virus spreads. We must keep this in check at an individual level,” he added.
Abhishek Pandey quoted Winston Churchill, “Lets not waste a good crisis”. Further, he added, “It is a crisis which has forced to think how to better plan our cities.” He went on to describe various approaches that countries have taken in dealing with the virus. “Sweden didn’t lockdown. The public health emergency head is more empowered than the prime minister at the time of a pandemic. The country’s pandemic related decisions are thus being taken directly by an expert,” Pandey said. With this approach, Sweden is working on developing herd immunity, Pandey informed.
Given the outcome, Pandey expressed that India had responded well, but not done something exemplary. With the help of figures, Pandey correlated the number of deaths per million with the urbanisation percentage. India, where a large population is rural based, has fared much better when it comes to casualties when compared with US or Spain or any other country.
In conclusion, he stressed that it is essential to reopen the economy. “We have to focus on supply chain. India needs to become self reliant for essentials like medical equipment and other essential commodities in order to truly move in the vision of the Prime minister,” he said.
Ashok Wankhede agreed with Abhishek Pandey’s observation. “India doing better because of villages. That doesn’t mean no urbanisation but planned urbanisation. Major cities face issues because of haphazard development as influx of migrants to the city increases,” he said. The senior journalist then compared the sedentary lifestyles of the urban, who are the most affected by the virus, to the rural population. “It is all about immunity. Due to their more active lifestyles, villagers are more physical and hence have better immunity. I believe that this disaster has given us opportunity to rethink our behaviour and lifestyle choices,” he said.
Finally, he stressed upon the importance of educating people about the disease and appropriate precautions that must be taken. For this, the authorities must work actively to equip people with the latest knowledge about the virus as they move on to resume their pre-pandemic lives.