Covid19 cases in China are much lower but restrictions are harsher than India : Report

New Delhi : Deadly coronavirus which originated from China, is now witnessing the slow down in the pace of infection, yet China has imposed extremely strict restrictions. On the other hand, India is currently facing the havoc of the second wave but the restrictions imposed here are less stringent than those of China. This information has been obtained through a report by the Global Stringency Index of the University of Oxford. This index shows the status of restrictions imposed in different countries to deal with infection. At present, the horrific condition of Corona in India can be gauged from the fact that there are now an average of four lakh cases being reported every day.

According to Oxford University’s Global Stringency Index, at present 78.24 per cent of the restrictions are in force in China. On seeing the graph of restrictions imposed in China, it is found that from January 2020 till today, on average 75% of the index restrictions are in place. Whereas, the transition situation in China had started improving since March-2020. Now, on an average, 5 new patients are being reported every day in China. However, in some areas of China, there has been an explosion of infection, which China has overcome by imposing stringent restrictions without losing time. Not only this, China had imposed extremely stringent sanctions of 81% index four times last year in February, May, September and November.

Restrictions in India are 74 percent stricter

According to Oxford University’s Global Stringency Index, the strictness of sanctions currently implemented in India is 73.61%. This level of stringency of sanctions has been in place since 19 April. Earlier, from 10 March to 2 April, the country had drastically relaxed the restrictions imposed to deal with the infection. At that time, the level of hardness of the restrictions was 57.87% which has been  the lowest level so far since the lockout which came into force on 25 March last year. This shows that despite the rate of infection rising from 15 February, the country did not impose the necessary restrictions in the month of March.

Last year, India had imposed 100 percent strict lockdown

According to the Oxford Index, India is one of the few countries where national lockdown rigidity was 100%. This most stringent lockdown continued in India from 25 March to 19 April. After this, restrictions ranging from 96% to 75% remained in force from 22 April to 29 September. After this the restrictions continued to be relaxed, the result of which we are seeing today.

Based on the Oxford Nine Indicator, it is ascertained what level of restrictions are in the applicable sanctions in a country. It includes nine standards including schooling, workplace ban, travel restrictions, ban on public events, stay at home, public traffic etc.