- What was feared all along ever since the pandemic was declared last year is appearing to be coming to unwanted fruition going by the unprecedented increase in the confirmed infection rates. The alarming speed with which the infection is spreading to nooks and corners of the country portends unimaginable challenges for the authorities concerned to stop the surge from scaling disastrous levels. The common citizens desperately making ends meet on the back of a debilitating downturn owing to stringent lockdowns of the bygone year are under seize. When everything appeared to be on the right track till February has metamorphosed into an ominous situation now.
PC: Magdalena Reed
- Honest introspection by all the stakeholders viz. the Union Government, the respective State Governments, the Healthcare Officials, Administrators at various levels, and the general public have contributed in equal measures to the prevailing crisis at play. Reasons are gross neglect, premature celebration, irrational sense of immunity, undesirable complacency, and sheer ignorance to appreciate the pitfalls of letting down guard vis-à-vis time-tested safety and health guidelines. Millions of people failing to wear a mask while out owing to a variety of reasons and conveniently failing to maintain social distance is such a common sight visible all around now.
- Add to it the avoidable and ludicrously phased-out assembly elections underway for four states and one union territory alongside by-elections in some states where blatant flouting of norms by lakhs of teeming people thronging campaign trails and rallies were sure-shot recipe for disaster. Allowing the Kumbh Mela and other religious congregations where again millions of devotees are converging without adhering to the protocol norms has only added to the conundrum as to how the authorities spectacularly failed to foresee the inevitable dangers of virus striking with force. Less said the better how disappointingly our political parties have conducted in all the above.
PC: Akshay Negi
- The optics presented to the common people on the ground by the political leaders were anything but calamitous when none of the sacrosanct Covid safety and health guidelines were observed. The political masters miserably failed to lead from the front by failing to adhere to well-thought-out guidelines and exhorting ordinary people to follow the same on television and print media failed to cut ice. Hypocrisy on display was immediately called out questioning the rationality and skewed priority of our leaders when a disaster of humongous nature was squarely looking in the eye. Trust me, an extremely grimmer situation on the ground portends a huge problem for sure.
- From here on, the authorities are left with few options but to prioritize ways and means to curb the rapid spread of the virus with intent and purpose. Besides ensuring stringent observation of safety and health standards, provisioning of adequate beds for the infected along with an uninterrupted supply of life-saving drugs, oxygen, ventilators, and vaccine for the inoculation drive should be prioritized on a war footing. Failing to do will be catastrophic and the country is bound to hurtle down to the abyss extracting indescribable amounts of efforts, resources, and lives in the bargain. The choices available are constricted.
