The entire world is today seeing a situation, the likes of which it has never seen, at least not in recent history. It is almost like the beginning of a post-apocalyptic thriller - a highly contagious and uncureable disease spreading through earth and killing people.



The numbers fortunately have been in control - and limited to a small fraction of the population. Thanks mostly to the fact that the virus mostly kills people with ‘weak systems’, as if nature thought about playing a round of ‘Survival of the fittest.’ If there’s one man-made factor that has helped control its spread - its something called lockdown. Borders being shut down at all levels - international, domestic states, cities, and curfews being imposed - no one allowed to go anywhere, touch anyone.

How has lockdown helped?

If we look at the global situation today, we can say with a fair bit of certainty that no country in the world - not even the most developed ones - have the health infrastructure to deal with a full-blown Coronavirus outbreak. The number of ICU beds, testing kits, masks, gowns etc. are just not enough.

Considering the challenge, the only thing that the government can do is to try and slow down the spread of the virus - so instead of a million people getting infected together, a few thousand people get the virus at one time. You might have heard about ‘flattening the curve’ - well, this is what it is about - flattening the curve of the virus spread. So, million people don’t get infected together, they get infected over the course of a few months or years. How does your government achieve this?

Well, you guessed it - lockdown. By ensuring that people don’t interact as much as they normally do, the spread of the virus slows down. This also gives the authorities time to get the healthcare systems in place - so that they are ready for what is to come.

And, this is the dirty secret of the lockdown - it does not kill the virus, it only slows down the rate at which people get infected.

What will happen when the lockdown ends?

In either of the cases, you need to be mentally prepared that you and your closed ones might get the virus, after a little delay depending on the efficacy of the efforts of your government. Stay cautious and informed about the symptopms and other developments from reliable sources such as UN and WHO, so that you can get medical help before any damage is done.

Finally, share whatever information you have with your near and dear ones, including this article.

PS: In case you find any errors and have evidence to the contrary, please share the same in the comments - remember to include links to reliable sources such as WHO, UN, research papers etc.