Fauci advises India to go for month-long lockdown

New Delhi: America's top public health expert Dr Anthony Fauci termed India's current Covid-19 situation 'very desperate' and 'urgent', adding that the government authorities need to allocate all of its resources, including armed forces, to immediately construct makeshift hospitals and develop better medical facilities for the people.

Dr Anthony Fauci was one of the foremost authorities on SARS-CoV-2. Recently in an interview with CNN News-18, Dr Fauci shared that he believes that India needs to impose 3-4 week-long lockdown in order to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission.

"I think it's clear that India has to take the step of shutting down most of the country, particularly the involved areas and I don't mean shutting down for six months, you don't need to do that.

You just need to break the chain of transmission, and one can do that by shutting down to the extent possible for two, three weeks, four weeks, and then as soon as the cases start coming down and you vaccinate more people, then you can get ahead of the trajectory of the outbreak because obviously, you've got to get as many people vaccinated as you possibly can," Dr Fauci said.

America's top public health expert also recalled India's effort of helping the small countries around the globe in their fight against Covid-19. "India has helped out other countries, when they've had difficulties, so I think as part of solidarity with India, we really need to show that we are really very concerned," he said.

"Prior to this, India was the largest vaccine producing country in the world. So, you've got to take your own resources, make vaccines yourself. I know there's a supply shortage but try and get as many supplies as possible to rev up your own capability, and then try and get it from other countries," he added.