Contain COVID-19 With ‘Indigenous Strategy’: Army Think Tank

The Centre for Joint Warfare Studies has released a paper on the control of the spread of the coronavirus in India.

Image used for representational purposes.

(Photo: AP)

As India reports over 1,600 COVID-19 cases and over 35 deaths, the Indian Army has started ‘quarantine wellness facilities’ at several locations, and also begun immediate measures to research and present a strategy to counter the coronavirus pandemic.

The Centre for Joint Warfare Studies (CENJOWS), under the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), has released a ‘A Counter Pandemic Strategy’ by Brigadier Sanjay Vishwasrao, who was India’s defence and military attaché in Pakistan from 2017 to 2019.

The 19-page research paper concludes that India can successfully control the curve of the pandemic using an indigenous strategy which creates an environment that’s unfriendly for the coronavirus.

‘India’s Strategy Needs to Suit Social, Political Setting’

The research comes at a time when COVID-19 cases worldwide have shot up to more than 8,00,000 with over 40,000 deaths. In an attempt to curb the spread of the virus in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown on 24 March.

Pointing towards the lockdown and other recent measures, the research argues India’s counter-pandemic strategy should cater to its economic, technological, social, cultural, demographic and political setting.

Among its key findings is that India’s unique culture, nationalism, strategic autonomy, along with social programmes such as Swachch Bharat, International Day of Yoga, Digital India Programme and Make in India could help contain the impact of COVID-19.

Isolate India From Foreign Carriers, Prevent Spread to Congested Areas

The research suggests an indigenous strategy to “deny/delay the negative tipping point of high number of infected and to hasten positive tipping point of more numbers isolated – treated than numbers infected per day/week/month.”

It also asks to isolate India from foreign carriers and focus on the affluent 20 percent with foreign travel history and their family/staff, and 20 percent counter-pandemic health workers to prevent spread to congested, susceptible areas. This is something that the Indian government has been focusing on during the Stage 2 over the last two weeks.

Further, domestically, it asks to create an environment unfriendly to the spread of COVID-19 by encouraging social distancing through Swachh Bharat, Yoga Day, Digital India Programme, etc., and repairing roadblocks such as slow broadband, no pay for daily wagers and so on.

Lastly, the research asks the administration leading the counter-pandemic measures to create an environment friendly for the counter-pandemic with easy access to protective equipment, unified payments interface (UPI) based pay/benefit disbursement, imaginative awareness programmes across all media, financial packages, etc.