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<ul><li>Rajeev Venkayya, Special Assistant to the President for Biodefense at the White House during the Bush administration who oversaw US preparedness for bioterrorism and biological threats, told it was difficult to say how much more time India would require to thwart the COVID-19 challenge.</li></ul><ul><li>On March 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide <keyword id="8942847" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="lockdown-in-india">lockdown in India</keyword> to stem the spread of coronavirus in the country.</li><li>A three-week lockdown is a reasonable starting point to contain the coronavirus pandemic in a country like India, he said.</li></ul> A three-week lockdown is a reasonable starting point to contain the coronavirus pandemic in a country like India, an eminent Indian-American epidemiologist has said, cautioning that a successful fight against the deadly virus might require some more time. Rajeev Venkayya, Special Assistant to the President for Biodefense at the White House during the Bush administration who oversaw US preparedness for bioterrorism and biological threats, told it was difficult to say how much more time India would require to thwart the COVID-19 challenge. On March 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown in India to stem the spread of coronavirus in the country. "From an epidemiologic standpoint, I don't know if three weeks will be enough. It may require more time," said Venkayya, who was responsible for the development and implementation of the National Strategy for Influenza pandemic during the second term of the Bush administration. He currently serves as president of the Global Vaccine Business Unit of pharmaceutical company Takeda. "We will have to look at what is happening in other countries," he said. "But if you were to ask me whether that will be enough given the size of the population, the healthcare capacity, the uniformity or lack of uniformity that is inevitable in a federated country like India where there's a lot of State autonomy on what to do and how to do it, and varying levels of compliance, I think this could easily go much longer," Venkayya said. A three-week lockdown is a reasonable starting point to contain the coronavirus pandemic in a country like India, he said. Since joining Takeda in 2012, he has established a high-impact vaccine pipeline that includes promising late-stage candidates for dengue and norovirus, gained through the acquisitions of LigoCyte and Inviragen Inc. As head of Special Assistant to the President for Biodefense at the White House, he was responsible for the America's first development and implementation of the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza in 2007. The White House published this federal guidance in 2007. "It's now called the flattening the curve strategy. At that time, we called it a targeted layered containment and then it became called community mitigation. But the first flattening the curve graph was published in our federal guidance in 2007," he said. "When I was in the white house, we were preparing for an influenza pandemic we realized that vaccines would not be available for many months after a pandemic started. And based on the 1918 experience, we expected there would be multiple waves of the pandemic and that for at least the first wave we would not have vaccines," he said. As such, the White House team led by him had to find other ways to protect communities from this pandemic virus. Based on some early modelling and additional modelling commissioned in 2006, they found the relevance of non-pharmaceutical interventions, community measures like closing schools and cancelling public gatherings, social distancing as well as isolation and quarantine for people that have been confirmed or suspected to have the virus. "If you put all of these things together, and importantly if you did them early in a coordinated fashion, you couldn't have a very big impact on the transmission of the virus in a community," he said, adding that this guidance was published in 2007. Emphasising the importance of doing these things early in the outbreak, he cautioned that else it would be much harder to prevent a large number of people from getting infected and accomplishing the goals of flattening the curve and delaying the peak of the curve. "So here I think it's very important that India took (lockdown) action now, ….. like many countries, there isn't widespread availability of diagnostic testing. And so it's hard to know how much virus is in any given community in India," he said. "We also know that the threat is greater in India than it may be in other places because of the population density. Also, there are significant portions of the population that don't have access to the healthcare services that would be necessary to take care of large numbers of sick people. So, it (social mitigation measures) becomes even more important in India than it's important everywhere," Venkayya said. Observing that none of the community interventions are perfect, he said if one puts a number of imperfect interventions together, then one can have a very significant positive impact on reducing virus transmission. Prior to Takeda, Venkayya served as director of Vaccine Delivery in the Global Health Program at the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, where he was responsible for the Foundation's efforts in polio eradication and new vaccine introduction. While at the foundation, he served on the Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). The death toll due to COVID-19 has gone up to 273 and the number of cases has climbed to 8,356 in India, according to the Health Ministry. Globally, the novel coronavirus has killed 108,862 people and infected over 1.7 million people globally. The US has the highest number of infections at 529,887, according to Johns Hopkins University data. LKJ MRJ MRJ

Three-week lockdown reasonable starting point to fight coronavirus in India: former White House official

New Delhi, Apr 14 () Automobile dealers' body FADA on Tuesday said over 15,000 of its members across the country will strictly comply with the lockdown extension till May 3. The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) President Ashish Harsharaj Kale said in a statement that the entire auto dealer community stands in complete support of the lockdown extension. "Health and security of our citizens is paramount and being a responsible and law abiding association, FADA will strictly follow the lockdown as it has been doing till now," he added. Auto dealers look forward to the country getting out of the lockdown on May 3 for business to resume, Kale said. Service assistance to all essential goods and services vehicle continues by all dealers round the clock as was during the previous lockdown period, he added. "FADA is hopeful that in the near future the government will surely announce a financial package for support to the business community during and post lockdown period and we have full faith and trust that the dealer community's list of request will be considered," Kale noted. On Monday, FADA had written to the PM Modi seeing immediate financial support in order to save their businesses amid the nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic. The 21-day nationwide lockdown, which was to end on April 14, has now been extended till May 3 to effectively combat the spread of Covid-19. MSS ANSANS

Auto dealers to strictly comply with lockdown extension: FADA

New Delhi, May 25 () Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra on Monday said lockdown extensions are not just economically disastrous but also create another medical crisis. While acknowledging that choices are not easy for policy makers, he said a lockdown extension will not help. "Lockdown extensions aren't just economically disastrous, as I had tweeted earlier, but also create another medical crisis," Mahindra said in a tweet. He was referring to an article that highlighted "the dangerous psychological effects of lockdowns &amp; the huge risk of neglecting non-COVID patients". Mahindra, who had earlier proposed a comprehensive lifting after 49 days of lockdown, further said, "The choices aren't easy for policy makers but a lockdown extension won't help". He said, "The numbers (coronavirus cases) will continue to rise &amp; the focus must be on rapid expansion of field hospital beds with oxygen lines". He further said, "The army has enormous expertise in this". On March 22, before the government announced nationwide lockdown, Mahindra had proposed such a move expressing concerns over reports that India was likely to have already reached stage 3 of coronavirus transmission. RKL BAL

Lockdown extensions economically disastrous, create another medical crisis: Mahindra

New Delhi, Apr 14 () Retailers on Tuesday assured there is enough inventory to meet the demand during the extended lockdown period, stating they had stocked up in anticipation of such a move from the government to curb the spread of coronavirus pandemic.Future Retail, V-Mart along with wholesale players -- Lots Wholesale Solutions and Metro Cash &amp; Carry India -- said they have been constantly monitoring the dynamic situation in order to ensure there were no supply disruptions of essential items and groceries."Based on sales projections, we have worked with suppliers to ensure that we have healthy stock availability at LOTS for our customers. Our supply chain management is flexible and is constantly evolving as per the rapidly changing scenario," LOTS Wholesale Solutions Managing Director Tanit Chearavanont told .He said the company has been constantly monitoring the situation and have put certain measures in place in anticipation of the lockdown extension."All three stores have leveraged the consumption data and identified patterns to project demand for day-to-day goods in the coming days," Chearavanont said.Additionally, LOTS has also emphasised on regular "shelf replenishment and maximise stock visibility" to aid customers to reduce their shopping time in its stores, he added.Similarly, Future Retail, which runs retail chain in several formats including Big Bazar and EasyDay Club, said it has also anticipated the extension and was planning for availability of products accordingly."We had already anticipated it and were prepared for such an extension. We were planning our supply chain accordingly to meet the essential requirement of the people," said a Future Retail Spokesperson.Though the company is still facing problems in stocking goods due to several constraints and bottleneck in the supply chain, it is able to maintain inventory for its buyers, the spokesperson said.Wholesale player Metro Cash &amp; Carry said it is prioritising on maintaining a seamless supply chain system so that there is no shortage of food and grocery during the extended lockdown period."We are focusing all our efforts in serving the nation by ensuring Kiranas who provide 90 per cent of our daily essentials have an access to all necessary products. We are prioritising on maintaining a seamless supply chain system so that there is no shortage of food and grocery."At this point of time, as a wholesaler, adequate supply of essentials coupled with safety and hygiene of customers and employees is of utmost importance for us," said Metro Cash &amp; Carry India MD &amp; CEO Arvind Mediratta.Commenting on the plans charted by the company for the extended period of the lockdown, Mediratta said, "In terms of preparing further ahead- we are ensuring three important aspects of our business are being taken care of -- employees, customers and store supplies".V-Mart, which operates mainly in tier-II and III cities, said it had also sensed the extension of the Lockdown period and was working in that direction.However, the company also asked the government to help the retail industry as the entire industry is under pressure and has not adequate cash flow because the stores are not operating."The Prime Minister has also asked to take care of the employees and pay them full salary but the retail industry is having the problem of cash flow. It would be difficult to support, if the government does not come out with some relief and support measures," said V-Mart Retail CMD Lalit Agarwal.According to him, the government should compensate retail industry expenses as all the retailers are facing problems on this."All the retailers are under tremendous pressure. The government should also look at this sector as retailers are on a very thin line of cash flow. Retail industry also supports employees of vendors and several manufacturers," he said.The Prime Minister on Tuesday announced the extension of lockdown till May 3. India is presently going through an unprecedented complete lockdown from March 25 to prevent the spread of the virus. KRH RKL BAL

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Three-week lockdown reasonable starting point to fight coronavirus in India: former White House official

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Auto dealers to strictly comply with lockdown extension: FADA

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Lockdown extensions economically disastrous, create another medical crisis: Mahindra

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Anticipated lockdown extension, adequate stocks in place, say retailers

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