First, an important word – supression. And then, an equally important word, more important, actually – mitigation. And we must understand these words well to answer the two big questions: 1. When to unlock the lockdown? 2. And how to unlock the lockdown?

So, what is suppression? Attacking coronavirus with all we have, to suppress it! Complete lockdown – no air, rail or road travel. Everyone at home. Social distancing at a national scale. Business, industry, agriculture – all shut! Lakhs jobless. The economy at a standstill for 21 days to suppress COVID-19.

So has suppression worked? India had 500 positive cases when the lockdown started, and now we have crossed 7,000 cases! The numbers doubled every 4-5 days, not as fast as the US, but perhaps not able to suppress the way a nationwide lockdown should have. The learning is that suppression helps, but has its limits.

Hence, we arrive at this word – mitigation. This means that by being very well-planned, right down the district, taluka and block level, by using reliable data about the spread of the virus smartly, by implementing carefully targeted lockdowns, we mitigate, we limit the spread of the virus and minimise the loss of life.

Yes, suppression and mitigation, both are needed. But a country needs to know when to suppress and when to switch to mitigation. With limited testing capacity, with limited healthcare resources, with the number of cases and deaths rising, on 24 March, we did need a lockdown – to flatten the curve and to slow the virus down.

Host: Rohit Khanna Editor: Purnendu Pritam Producer: Hera Khan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices