- Trust me, none of us in the right senses would wish to go through yet another grind of the challenges we were subjected to in the backdrop of the pandemic wrought lockdowns of last year. Enduring the extremely debilitating effects of the hardships for weeks on and the subsequent repercussions owing to the aftermath of these restrictive measures are being experienced even now. The country slowly crawled back to some semblance of normalcy battling it out hard against several mitigating factors. The economic green shoots visible from diverse fields did portend promising days ahead leaving people with optimistic expectations to chug along despite adversities.
PC: PTI
- All through these challenging times, there were tell-tale signs of the dangers of the virus lurking around as the virulent virus kept coming at humanity in different waves. The European and Western countries were subjected to incessant infection waves where few of the developed countries had to resort to blunt instruments like lockdowns to tame the menace to acceptable limits. India did appear to have handled the first Covid wave adroitly keeping the confirmed infection rates and case fatality rates well below the global norms drawing praise from many countries, including the World Health Organization.
- Of course, with the emergency user approval of the vaccines, including the indigenously developed, the country seemed to be moving in the right direction to finally emerge on top of the pandemic. Even though the pace of vaccination drive failed to pick up the tempo on expected lines covering all intended beneficiaries, the elderly citizens through their enthusiasm and keenness to get inoculated did push other reluctant fence-sitters to come forward to receive jabs. When the situation appeared to be coming under control, the second Covid wave started making an unwanted appearance in many of the states throwing the administration into a tizzy to combat the threat.
PC: Jon Cohen
- The reason for the spike can be easily attributed to the lack of discipline in observing covid appropriate behaviour while completely letting go of the necessity to wear a mask, maintain social distance, and diligently follow hand-wash hygiene as a frontline defence mechanism to keep the virus at bay. Sustaining livelihood is equally important as also lives by striking a workable balance is the need of the hour. Curtailing opportunities to sustain livelihood is out of the question and hence, the onus of following simple but effective means to stay safe rests with citizens who were flouting the same with gay abandon resulting in the present situation of grave concerns.
- As the confirmed infection rates cross one milestone after another every day, there is nothing else but to follow a five-point strategy as exhorted by the Prime Minister recently. Diligently following and observing testing, tracing, treating, covid-appropriate behaviour, and vaccination alone should be able to tide over the crisis staring at us. The health authorities and citizens alike should join hands without any further delay to break the virus spread with utmost urgency. Laxity and complacency on the matter would prove to be catastrophic in the coming days. Let us not allow the virus a free run to subdue and subjugate us with impunity. Fight to the end!
