Political
Diary
New Delhi, 13 April
2021
Covid
Curfew to Tikka Utsav
WHITHER
SAINYAM & SANKALP?
By
Poonam I Kaushish
India
is caught in a paroxysm: A
lethal mix of electoral frenzy and devastating and deadlier second wave of Covid
19. As our netas continue to stomp in
five-poll bound States, the insidious enemy rampages races through the
country's urban and rural landscape. Yesterday, active cases had crossed 1,35,27,717,
death toll increased to 1,70,179 with 904 new fatalities, the highest since 18 October
last and the national recovery rate fell below 90%. Yet it does not stop many from trampling on all
pandemic norms and regulations, despite an ongoing tika utsav.
Besides,
surge States Maharashtra, Punjab and Chhattisgarh, eight others: UP, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh,
Gujarat and Rajasthan have shown a steep rise in the daily cases adding to Government woes now
a “cause of worry” as they account for 83.02% of new
infections.
Abominable is the
state of affairs in three surge States with the highest numbers of new Covid-19
deaths in the country. In Maharashtra there is very high hospital occupancy in
three districts, three other districts are facing problems with oxygen supply,
there are malfunctioning ventilators in two districts, some districts are dependent
on neighbouring ones to manage critical patients, in not a few places two
patients are sharing a bed and there is acute shortage of healthcare workforce
in 7 districts.
In Punjab two
districts have no dedicated Covid hospitals, there is shortage of healthcare
workers in three districts and no RTPCR testing lab in one. In Chhattisgarh,
there is a shortage of RTPCR testing in three districts; four districts have
high hospital bed occupancy rates, State capital Raipur has limited oxygen
availability and three districts have health workforce shortage. In Gujarat and
UP testing numbers are a “big issue.”
While a Government
hospital in Patna made a “fatal” error by mistakenly declaring an alive Covid 19
patient as dead while handing over another person’s body to his kin. Adding to
woes, faceless, unrecognized and unappreciated
migrant workers have started leaving Mumbai, Delhi and Punjab signaling shortage of labour which
could lead to the economy nose-diving.
Also despite
flexibility hospitals complain of be given limited doses when they have a capacity
to administer 1,000 vaccines a day. Some were scared of getting the jab and
others said they needed more information. Not a few wanted to brave it out and
left it to God.
Worse, doctors are
flummoxed by the virus’s mutants raging across the country. Is it homegrown, UK,
South Africa or Brazil strain? Either way it is multiplying three times faster
than the earlier wave of infections, thereby exerting enormous pressure on the
medical infrastructure.
Moreover, we seem to
have overestimated our ability and underestimated the virus. Unfortunately, the
current approach appears to be “business as usual” with no strict compliance to
Covid 19-appropriate behavior. See how our ‘maskless’ unfettered political
leaders have thrown caution to the winds and are busy campaigning, addressing
mammoth election rallies with voters shoulder-to-shoulder sans mask and adherence
to virus protocol.
Certainly, we can put
it down to Covid fatigue, complacency and nonchalant approach as citizens drop
masks, shun social distancing and party more so once they are administered the
first vaccine dose, despite the contagion strike being noxious, rudely
reminding us that it hadn’t gone anywhere. Compounding matters our fragile health
apparatus is again falling short.
Asserted NITI Aayog
member Dr Paul, “We are going from bad to worse. No State should have been
complacent when the numbers began falling, as the pandemic was not over. If we
don’t keep our guard up, we will never break the chain of viral transmission
permanently.” Adding, “The whole country is facing a severe, intensive
situation now and is at risk as every new person the virus infects, it has a
chance to mutate.”
Questionably, have no
lessons been learnt in one year? Are we heading for States-wide lockdown? Is
India prepared to handle the second wave with insights gained from a year of contagion
management? What about the economic fallout?
Alas, trust our
politicians to politicize the pandemic. Many Opposition-ruled States bellowed
‘vaccine shortage,’ accusing the Centre of refusing to give any assurance on
its supply, just to score brownie points. The Government has mismanaged the
situation by exporting vaccine resulting in a shortage in the country, stated
the Congress.
Presently, with over
25 lakhs vaccinated, data based analysis shows at an average rate of four
million doses a day it will take till mid-June to inoculate 100 million
Indians. In a 1.3 billion plus country this might not be enough to either slow
the virus spread or turn the tide on its own. Also the health establishment only
concentrated on its inoculation drive instead of testing, monitoring and
contact tracing. Forgetting, that the battle against the virus needed to be
fought on multiple fronts.
Consequently,
the Government needs to intensify its inoculation drive, augment its testing facilities
on a national scale, maintain readiness of public health and clinical
infrastructure, including field hospitals, insure adequate vaccine supply and
target its distribution where most required, minimize wastage and approve more
vaccines. Alongside, States need to accelerate testing, tracing and treat, insure
public compliance and do district mapping for equitable distribution. The private
sector should be given a larger role and vaccine confidence promoted at the
community level.
States could learn
from Assam whereby it plans to include district hospitals, medical colleges and
healthcare centres with cold-chain facilities at the village, block and
district levels. As also set up additional vaccine centres in areas with high
concentration of vulnerable population. States and private hospitals must be allowed
to source vaccines directly and adapt inoculation strategies to tackle
localized infection surges and hesitancy/ignorance among diverse groups.
The grim truth is Covid
19 demands greater responsibility from both Government and citizens. The
ongoing Mahakumbh in Uttarakhand is a classic example of how politics of faith
is allowed to trample science even as farmers protests across Punjab, Haryana and
UP enhance the risk to the aam aadmi.
Our policy makers,
medical experts and the public need to aggressively band together to fight the
virus on war footing with three ‘Ts’, 'Test, Track, Treat'. Limited micro lockdowns
have already been imposed in some cities and the threat of a more stringent
lockdown looms large if the health system continues to be overwhelmed.
Along-with an effective
control game plan, we need to draw new strategies to keep pace with the ever
increasing mutants, contain the virus, rapidly vaccinate more sections of the
population, renew Covid appropriate behavior, step up genomic surveillance to
track down variants and make long-term policy changes to reduce the adverse
impact.
Whither our Sainyam and Sankalp? Crisis time calls for togetherness as we head into a
cautious new world --- with Orwellian overtones. We must have courage and take
a rational view at known facts and act accordingly. Else the virus will rip
open the social and economic scars of 2020 which are still to heal. What gives?
---- INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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