In a latest alert call, the Union government said the Coronavirus may emerge again and so Centre needs to collaborate with states, infrastructure needs to be ramped up, curbs and Covid-appropriate behaviour must be followed. We wish the same sense of urgency would have shown by the governments at the centre and states in the intervening period of last October 2020 till February 2021 when they relented and hanged their boots.
NITI Aayog member (health) Dr V K Paul dismissed criticism directed at the government that it was caught unaware of the intensity of the second Covid-19 wave.
Paul said, we kept warning again and again from this platform that the second wave of Covid-19 will come. It was said that the seropositivity is 20 per cent, 80 per cent of the population is still vulnerable and that virus has not gone anywhere and other countries were also witnessing a resurge.
He also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had conveyed to the country on March 17 about the emerging second wave and had said that we have to fight it.
Paul warned that there will be another peak and that the Centre and state governments have to be prepared. “So peak will come, the virus can again emerge, we know. So preparations have to be made at the country level in collaboration with states, infrastructure has to be ramped up, containment measures have to be implemented and Covid appropriate behaviour has to be followed,” he said.
There is no need to justify lapses and goof up on the part of the government and politicians collectively after seeing a gut-wrenching and heart-rending scenario in the worst-hit areas of the country. Lack of foresight and planning ended up this catastrophe killing over two lakh people like flies. It is utter mismanagement, lack of vision; sanity and sagacity that have resulted in this mayhem. There’s no accountability and no sense of urgency. Shirking their immediate responsibility, ministers and politicians are egging the gullible masses on to invoke gods, as the only god/s can save them. This is their clever ploy to pass the buck. So please focus on the disaster and leave all justifications as people have seen enough of it.
