Most of the countries have relaxed covid restrictions but the scientific community has warned against easing the relaxations. They said that lockdowns in several countries had led to curbing the spread of the disease and relaxing these curbs could carry high risks.
The countries have started to relax lockdown as they were worried about their economy. A study conducted by the Imperial College, London and another by United States scientists revealed that the spreads of the disease could be curbed because of lockdown and restrictions.
Samir Bhatt, who co-led one the study by the Imperial College, told reporters that the risk of a second wave happening is a reality if all the restrictions and precautions are relaxed.
The Imperial college study looked into impact of lockdowns and social distancing in 11 European countries. They found that these had significantly helped in curbing the spread of the disease. The study said that these had led to lower the infection’s reproductive rate or R value. The R value is a measure of the average number of persons that one infected person will pass the disease on to.
Rejecting the claims that everything was over and had reached the herd community threshold, Samir Bhatt said that the world was only at the beginning of the pandemic.
The study by the US scientists claimed that that lockdowns in China, France, Italy, South Korea, Iran, and United States had prevented or delayed around 530 million Coronavirus cases. The researchers focussed on these countries. They compared the infection rates before and after the imposition of the restrictions. They said that the early infection rate grew by 68 per cent a day in Iran and 38 per cent a day in other countries. But after the imposition of restrictions, the rates were found to be lowered, the scientists said.
