The country today has set in motion the largest inoculation drive to cover India’s huge population in the age group of 45 year and above. People now look worried over the Corona pandemic spreading its tentacles across the country with new variants. What is more worrying is the fact that despite the successful launch of the vaccination drive, the Covid virus is still rampaging through the country and it will be a while before the vaccinations will succeed in insulating the population against it.
The government of India has categorically said that 80 per cent of the spikes were due to violation of the covid-appropriate behaviour, while new covid strains were responsible for only 20 per cent of the cases. Maharashtra is now the worst affected state in the country, and the other five states worst affected Punjab, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat. Non-observance of covid-appropriate behaviour as advised by the experts is the single largest reason for the spike.
Emerging situation in Jammu and Kashmir is no better and it indicates that second wave has already entered into this region that has compelled the administration to re-impose restrictions inter-state and inter-divisions. Four deaths and 373 positive cases in a day is alarming! The infected reported daily in J&K may be numerically low but proportionally serious in terms of scarce population.
What is frightening is that new strains of the virus emerge daily, keeping medical scientists on their toes to modify the vaccines to neutralise their effects. In Punjab, for example, the UK strain has been detected in the newly-infected, while in Maharashtra reports spoke of a South African variant. All this indicates that the war against the coronavirus pandemic is far from being won.
As the Prime Minister cautioned in the 75th episode of his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio programme on Sunday, people should not disregard basic precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. “Dawai Bhi, Kadai Bhi, (Medicine as well as strict discipline)”, were necessary to fight the menace. Meanwhile, the vaccination drive will gather further momentum in the coming days, with the objective of achieving a target of 50 lakh jabs daily.
The system is being geared to handle the rush of people when those above the age of 45 will be eligible to receive the vaccine from April 1. The official platform for registration for vaccination has been further upgraded to smoothen its operation. Predictably, due to the second wave of the virus, the mood in the corporate boardrooms and in the share markets has once again turned sombre, though the central bank still sticks to its growth projections.
Union Health Secretary has sent a letter to all districts in the country, irrespective of the level of a surge of containment, to draw up a ‘district action plan’ with clear timelines and responsibilities to control the spread of infection. “The current rise of cases is of concern and has the potential of overwhelming the healthcare system, unless checked right now,” the letter read.
“Test, track, treat” remains the key to check the pandemic further and by increasing testing along with a high proportion of RT-PCR tests, tracing 25-30 contacts per positive case, isolation, and larger containment zones.
Even when such statements have come, the country is witnessing large assemblies of people violating the SoPs, many of them are even election rallies. You can ask a question why the governments are not implementing the SoPs? The most appropriate answer would be, the people responsible to implement the advisories have become blind to the real interest of the people.
