As India is witnessing a record number surge in coronavirus cases over the past few weeks, medical experts believe that forced isolation could be the only way to contain the pandemic. According to medical experts, failure in effectively managing contagious people with mild or no symptoms is acting as a catalyst behind some of the world's worst resurgences.
When people fail to cooperate, laws should act
Manikandan, a resident in Palakkad, Kerala returned to his hometown after working for months as a lorry driver in states like Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. Upon arriving his home town in Vadakkencherry, health authorities requested Manikandan to undergo institutional quarantine. However, Manikandan refused, and health authorities soon informed the issue to the local police.
Police reached Manikandan's house, and despite repeated requests from the station house officer, he refused to obey the instructions. Even after two hours of negotiations, Manikandan refused to go with the authorities, and he even claimed that people who drink alcohol regularly will not get contracted with the virus. Later, police officials asked Manikandan's parents to shift to a different location to prevent a possible contract with the virus.
The vitality of compulsory isolation
Compulsory isolation, which may be sometimes forced is a tried and tested approach that has helped countries like Italy, and South Korea to successfully contain the spread of COVID-19. However, in countries like the United States, where people consider the compulsory implementation of lockdown rules a threat against civil liberty, the virus has resurged, and the number of deaths is also going high drastically.
"A laissez-faire approach naively trusting everyone to be responsible has been shown to be ineffective, as there will always be a proportion who will breach the terms of the isolation," said Jeremy Lim, adjunct professor at the National University of Singapore's Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, Bloomberg reports.
According to the latest statistics, there more than 2.4 million coronavirus positive cases in India, and the death toll has already crossed 48,000. Considering the current trend, the coronavirus statistics in India will witness a drastic rise in the coming days as well.
