With the easing of restrictions and opening of markets and offices in various districts in Jammu Kashmir, a partial momentum of life was visible in Jammu region. This decision of partial unlock in the wake of what the administration perceives as a significant dip in death and Covid positivity rates in the J&K evoked a mixed response from the Medical fraternity and social observers with some terming the move as a right step while others stating that the Administration should have continued with the curfew for a week or two more.
Some Flu expert and Doctors opined that the decision of unlocking at this stage was premature as Covid positivity rate and deaths are still high.
They said that genome sequencing has not been done at a large scale so nobody knows how many variants are present in the UT. Authorities are totally unaware of the real situation. There is still some laxity among people in observing SoPs thus Virus can bounce back and whatever we had gained in a lockdown of over a month, can go waste.
The other opinion says being partial opening it would be guarded and supervised and the administration is watching situation keenly. Moreover, the administration is now in a comfortable position with improvement in the Healthcare infrastructure in J&K in terms of ICU beds and sufficient supply of Oxygen.
There is no doubt that the lockdown cannot be indefinite and the opening is a dynamic process and the government is watching situation keenly and checking trend whether cases are decreasing or increasing and that accordingly decision is being taken.
But it is a matter of life and death and the government should take such decisions on unlocking only on the basis of interpretation of the data and not under public pressure to unlock. Professional wisdom says that the process of easing lockdown should have been taken only when there was 10 per cent decrease in cases and deaths on daily basis for one week followed by a 5 per cent further decline in another week.
Further, medical norms suggest that when the number of tests being extensively done and positivity rate found should be extremely low.
Moreover, J&K claimed to have vaccinated only 32,90,400 persons which is just one-fourth of its existing population. The government drive of vaccination, though aggressively taken, still fall short of vaccines and people have to stand in long queues for getting that first jab.
Heaven would have not fallen if the restrictions would have carried for another week or so because people have shown tremendous patience and cooperation with the administration without any complaint. The lockdown isn’t a permanent solution as it has repercussions as well but people must take care of what is supposed of them to do and i.e. they need not go out until very urgency warrants. Mind it, the laxity that people in general often show would waste what we have gained during the lockdown as we must understand that only restrictions have been eased while the Covid has not.
