Bar-Yam, who specialises in quantitative analysis of pandemics, said underlying factors such as previous successful response efforts in pandemics, less urbanisation that limits travel and rates of community transmission, limited travel and localised tourism were all important in reducing the impact of Covid-19 .
Mr.Yam found that swift government action of restricting and regulating movement to increasing the public health capacity to meet the increasing demands of the pandemic was the key for mitigation of present situation India seems to have done enough to emerge successful in limiting the impact of the virus.
Bam yam highlighted the steps taken by the government, the particular decisions of Governments to impose severe restrictions on travel, stop gatherings, targeted localized lockdowns, school closures, had proven effective in controlling the outbreak.
According to him, other major steps by government of India are, effective public communication, improvements in case identification, rapid ramping of industrial production of masks and distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) and increasing testing capacity.
Bar-Yam said that India’s success showed that time and travel are key to controlling pandemics. “The message to go out from India therefore is ‘restrict travel in areas wherein cases are there, isolate cases and don’t allow them to transmit infection’,” he recollected.
The nine major government actions because of which India had managed to mitigate pandemic effect according to Yaneer Bar-Yam are as follows,
1. The zoning of the country into three zones – red, orange and green – for localised lockdowns as probably the most effective step taken by the government last April.
2. Restriction on travel was the second most important step, as travel was regulated through issue of e-pass with checks on state borders across the country, and the regulation of travel continues into 2021 .
3. Isolation and contact tracing of individuals who test positive to Covid-19, and quarantining of primary high-risk contacts has been very effective.
4. The government shut down all educational institutes for an extended period, and the recent reopening has been partial
5. The Indian industries response was rapid in producing masks and personal protective equipment .Which are not only to meet the country’s requirements, but for export too
6. RT-PCR test labs increased from one to 2300 in a short span of time, and this number has reduced the test result return time and also strengthened isolation and quarantine strategy.
7 .Precautionary caller tunes on phones , heavy fines for not wearing masks, spreading public awareness about Covid-19 risks has been a major initiative of the government which made majority of the population to willingly accepted restriction guidelines.
8. The refinement of lockdowns, travel restrictions, rapid case identification and communication found in high-density urban areas has helped limit the spread.
9. The great Indian vaccination drive, which is the largest in the world, have an increasingly significant impact on the outbreak control in India.
Yaneer Bar-Yum who is a complexity scientist, researcher, author, professor, and founder of the New England Complex System Institute (NECSI). Yaneer received his PhD in Physics from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has an extensive background in using principles and insights from complex systems science to better the world.