With active Covid cases in India today crossed the 12.64 Lakh- mark for the first time after a record high of 1.68 lakh new infections in a day while a massive vaccination push goes on, the Covid demon seems going berserk on a killing spree. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dubbed the situation as the beginning of another major war against coronavirus. On Sunday last, the revised action plan was launched in a bid to abate the fresh surge can also be seen as a rare admission of our people being complacent in observing the dos and don’ts in the country’s struggle to overcome Corona pandemic effectively.
Further delay in launching the vaccination drive in India by few weeks and later for the doubts raised by some politicians having vested interests by adverse propaganda over the effectiveness rate of coronavirus vaccines approved in India has discouraged the people in general going for the inoculation.
While the cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 10 crore after 87 days, a special vaccination campaign being further strengthened to cover the huge population which remains a challenge for our government. Though belated, it is good that the government has approved the third vaccine from Sputnik-V from Russia to be launched for use in India.
“Anyone eligible for the vaccine should get the jab and for this, the society and administration have to make full efforts,” Prime Minister has said while pitching for
‘zero vaccine waste’ and urging the people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour in a strict manner.
By moving an extra mile this way, this may be the beginning of another major war against corona. But for many reasons including those attributed to political expediency, the Centre indulged in self-congratulations as India appeared to buck the trend in late January 2021, with aggregate cases below 10,000. We underestimated the unknown. We proudly claimed that our vaccine exports exceeded domestic usage; that showed a glaring lethargy. We are paying the price today for this apathy borne out of our ignorance and arrogance. Herd immunity at the current stage was never enough as we need to vaccinate 75 per cent of the population to defeat the virus in India. It is to be noted that India has already emerged as the vaccine supplier for the whole world.
We have to lay special emphasis on personal hygiene as well as social hygiene as prime precautions while observing SoPs honestly. Any laxity in our behaviour may doom the collective efforts to come over the horrible Covid situation.
