Third wave: Litmus test for NE states
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: January 14, 2022 -

IN view of the alarming surge in the number of Covid-19 positive cases across the country, it could be conveniently predicted that neutralising impact from the third wave of the pandemic will take a considerable time and misery of the common people will get increasingly compounded.

While spurt in the infection rate in the world's second most populated country is on expected line for asking the citizens to remain indoors would draw public ire as was evident when the nationwide lockdown was imposed during the first wave, aggravation of the pandemic situation lays exposes both delay and slackness in conducting tests, which could aid the regional governments in initiating preventive measures.

For the north-eastern states, the evolving situation would be of great concern as healthcare infrastructure in the region is comparatively inferior compared to the bigger states in mainland parts of the country.

With the addition of daily cases in thousands for two consecutive days in Assam, Manipur crossing the 200 mark on Wednesday and many of the states in the region reporting transmission of cases among the local population, there is strong suspicion that the preventive measures formulated by the central government might not have been implemented in the right earnest.

From single digit or in between 2050 cases in many of the north-eastern states about a week back, Arunachal Pradesh recently recording 134 cases, poll-bound Manipur's test positivity rate crossing the 8 percent mark, Meghalaya reporting 159 new infections on Tuesday, Nagaland seeing 29 fresh cases also on Tuesday and Sikkim breaching the 100 mark after remaining free from the infection for the past many weeks testify ineptness of the regional governments.

With 1513 fresh cases, Mizoram reported the highest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases on Tuesday in nearly three months.

All these figures of infections indicate that the healthcare sector in northeast region might face serious problems if such a disturbing trend continues.

As the Omicron driven third wave has not been as fatal as the second wave triggered by Delta variant of Covid-19, the government authorities seem to be living under the impression that there is no need to press the alarm bell.

Nevertheless, for the commoners the evolving scenario is a cause of concern as further aggravation of the situation will definitely compel the government to impose stricter curbs on livelihood activities.

While curtailment of normal chores would not have any serious impact on the government employments whose monthly salaries would not be affected despite reduction in working hours, it is daily wagers who would be hardest hit in case of cessation of economic activities like in the first two waves when lockdowns and prolonged imposition of curfews devastated the lives of many.

Among other measures to break the chain of transmission in the state's context, the authorities need to focus on preventing influx of vectors from other parts of the country by ramping up the testing facilities at the entry points, especially the check gates in the inter-state boundary.

For instance, only One Chandel native found positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday out of the total of 50 cases in the district indicates either failure to properly screen travellers from other states or spread of the contagion among the central forces.

As total eradication of the pandemic is out of the picture at the juncture, the only option left to check deterioration of the situation is to intensify the screening and testing exercises across the northeast region.