March 24, 2021 - This would be the date when India will be marking its first anniversary of the unprecedented experiment - Nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The nation had gone through testing times in addressing the pandemic as the outbreak of the fastest human to human transmitting virus had triggered the large-scale restrictions, complete closures of borders, and the lockdown had pushed millions to face financial distress, plummeting economy, and livelihoods. 

It was a kind of experiment that the nation never wished but it had braced up to tackle the invisible menace. The year 2020 has been confinement for many across and beyond the borders and the lockdown has also made everyone settle for the new normal from discharging their works and studying online. The country was slowly pushed out from the lockdown through the relaxations from the restrictions and in the late last year, India had returned to normalcy not by defeating COVID-19 but by started to live along with the viral infection. 

Amid such testing times, India had raced towards developing the vaccines to treat the pandemic and the country had progressed towards rolling out the vaccination drive. On January 16, 2021, India had begun the vaccination programme of inoculating the vaccine shots, Covishield and Covaxin, to the Indian people, and in two months, the country has vaccinated crores of people including the frontline and healthcare workers. In a year of the outbreak, India had developed vaccines to curb the spread of the pandemic. However, the current data shows that the nation is disturbingly going into another wave of the outbreak. 

After a sharp decline, the COVID-19 cases have again been increasing in the country, pushing it to mark the first anniversary of the nationwide lockdown with the speculations that there may be another round of the lockdown and restrictions, reprising 2020. The sudden surge in the cases had prompted some of the states to impose curfew again to curb the spread. The rise of cases has now alerted the Central and state governments and poured uncertainty on the people on what's next. 

In recent days, the country has been witnessing many clusters with the Union Health Ministry saying that 85% of cases have come from five to six states and the ministry has said that these six states have reported cases that they have to be labeled with a red alert. After a long gap, India has reported 24,492 fresh cases in the last 24 hours and the country has so far reported over 11 million cases, the second-highest tally in the world after the United States. According to reports, some of the states are reinforcing the lockdown and restrictions. 

Maharashtra has been witnessing the rapid spread of the pandemic and as the sequel of the sharp increase with over 15,000 fresh cases on Monday, the state government has issued fresh guidelines and extended curbs imposed in containment zones till March 31st. The government has strictly warned the people to adhere to the rules and the violations would be booked under the Disaster Act. Along with Maharashtra, some of the states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh had also imposed the night curfew to restrict the movements of people. 

The state of Tamil Nadu has also been recording a surge in fresh cases and amid the election fervor and campaigns, the state is working towards containing the spread. The state government had already made E-pass mandatory for the interstate movements and there have been reports that dozens of students in schools and colleges have been testing positive for the pandemic, pushing the government to shut down the institutions. 

The reports say that there has been a steady increase in the fresh COVID-19 cases in Chennai in the last week with several clusters and recently, two people in the massive Koyambedu market had tested positive and the civic body authorities are currently tracing all the contacts and isolating them. The state has been witnessing fresh cases more than the discharged cases on the per-day count and these developments have combinedly stirred the speculations on whether the lockdown is coming back. 

The ruling government and political parties in Tamil Nadu have been accused of being apathetic over containing the pandemic as they are busy in the election campaigns, which would usually attract thousands of people and most of the people have taken a break from the COVID-19 protocols and guidelines. The health experts say that Tamil Nadu has come to the state where it needs another round of complete lockdown. However, the government and the experts' committee didn't meet up due to elections. 

They cautioned the government and people that losing the grip over containing the pandemic would lead to an adverse effect. Recently, 56 students belong to the same school had tested positive for the viral infection in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu and the government has brought nearly 24 villages under its surveillance and observation and the experts say that the current situation in Tamil Nadu and the country warrants the people that they need to be ready for the fresh restrictions and guidelines. 

In the wake of the increasing number of cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called a virtual meeting of Chief Ministers on March 17 and the meeting will begin at 11 am on Wednesday. According to reports, the Prime Minister will be discussing effective management of the vaccination programme to tackle COVID-19 will be discussed with the Chief Ministers among other topics. It has been expected that the Prime Minister will take feedback and suggestions from the Chief Ministers about the ground situation and based on the suggestions, the Central government will formulate the strategy to contain the resurgence of COVID-19. 

Though implementing the lockdown would be on the card, the PM-CM meet will discuss the road ahead for the country in tackling another wave of Coronavirus. Another round of lockdown had stirred the debate among the experts with some saying that another round of complete lockdown would further collapse the already plummeting economy and job rate and would stir large-scale health and economic crisis. What we can expect from the PM-CM meet is that the Prime Minister could be asking the Chief Ministers to enforce necessary guidelines and expedite the vaccination process of vaccinating all eligible people. As India will be marking the first anniversary of the nationwide lockdown next week, it has been steering ahead with the possibilities of lockdown in several states.