The pandemic has already taken away hundreds of thousands of lives and affected millions around the world and is now spreading like a forest fire around the globe. In India, people were now shifting to the Community Spread Phase and the concerns are mounting.
Capital markets that were heading south are now trying to recuperate, the employment sector is still looking miserable, and news of community spread from Delhi is making me restless. Our salaries for the last months have been paid but hope for June and new opportunities are dying out.
In India, people are not badly affected as rest of the world till now. Yes, the numbers are rising and with a total number of COVID-19 patients as on 8th June stand at 256,611, claiming 7,135 lives, India is now the fifth worst-affected country by the deadly disease. But the numbers don’t speak the true story as the population is gigantic in India when compared to other countries like Spain, the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK, and others.
It should be noted here that the only metric worth considering here is number of deaths per million – and for Spain it is 575 per million, whereas for India it is only 4 per million. And the ranking as per this criterion is rank 4 for Spain and rank 120 for India.
The other solace is the best rate of recovery among Coronavirus patients, which is over 50 percent in India. The numbers of cases that have recovered from the virus now outnumber the active cases. That’s a great win.
With the Unlock 1.0 phase, most of the regions in India are witnessing the onset of the third stage, i.e. the Community spread of the virus. And surely, with this COVID-19 will once again be testing the feeling of community and safety that existed in the close-knit families of India.
Life once again will be on a Knife-edge. It is by now clear that while the ticking bomb has not gone off, it hasn’t been diffused either. And people have a long fight ahead of them.
It is necessary now to cast an eye towards planning for the next stage. The coming days and weeks will be critical. Difficult decisions to lift lockdowns, curfews and other restrictions have already been taken, but people still cannot overlook the economic, social, demographic and geographic aspects, because even if people do not die due to the COVID-19, they will certainly die of hunger.
Indian positivity
India and her citizens standing with the govt. are fighting the virus-like true warriors. And the world is applauding us; applauding the way India is fighting with the only topic trending in recent times on social media and intellectual circles is how India is maturely fighting with Corona. India has been able to take timely steps in the initial stages itself whereas most of the European countries, despite a steep rise in the number of cases ignored the issues, and India sees the consequences. India considered a third world country until now is quickly gaining respect and recognition at the world stage.
India is one of the very few nations where govt. has taken action at the root levels itself. Lockdown and other timely pro-active actions gave flexibility to people in breaking the corona chain. A happy human is 100 time stronger than a unwell person, and to lift the moods of citizens during the lockdown times, pro-active activities like mass applauding of efforts of the health workers on March 22, and lighting up of candles/diyas/torch lights on April 5th boosted the morale of Indians highly and re-ignited the spirit to fight Corona with full vigour.
People stayed calm, didn’t resort to hoarding of essentials, and people made arrangements of feeding the poor irrespective of their caste and religion and also fed the other inhabitants of mother earth- the stray animals and birds.
People followed social distancing through innovative methods of drawing circles and boxes. People used Jugaads (unconventional options) to turn discarded train coaches into ICU wards, creating 10,000 bed mobile hospitals on these coaches, quickly acted in making low coast masks, industrial houses helped through monetary support, made ventilators, and devised innovative and affordable solutions for corona warriors, etc.
Above all the huge public participation is something which was totally unexpected of us, in spite of the world thinking that India still is a snake charmer’s country where people don’t care for others.
People showed that they are a powerhouse and know how to tackle issues which hurt them, and the world has started cheering our efforts in tackling the grave issue seriously when China behaved like a cheat by supplying defective health supplies; Europe is still down on in knees, the USA is behaving like a headless chicken, many people are confidently tackling the situation and showing the world how to be patient and guiding others to follow suit.
Indians are fighting it out and assuring the world that mankind will once again emerge winner and everything will be all right.
Comments are closed.