Uptick trend of Covid cases : Posers on mock drill
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 12, 2023 -

It is not yet a surge but nothing can or should be left to chance. Take the statistics into consideration.

On April 1, 2023 Manipur reported a new Covid positive case, after a lull of three months, the last such case having been reported on January 3 this year.

Thereafter, that is February and March, Manipur remained Covid free, but given the wily characteristics of the virus and its unpredictability, it sort of made a comeback with one case reported on April 1.

Since then it has been a steady climb with at least 12 active cases now and this is just April 11.

The Arithmetic is easy enough. Manipur has been logging a fraction over 1 new case each day since April 1 and taking the burgeoning cases in other parts of the country, one cannot afford to be too careful.

It is in line with the trend across the country that Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had called for a Nationwide Covid drill on April 10 and 11 to take stock of the preparedness of the health centres to deal with any exigency.

Significant to note that the Union Health Minister personally visited Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital at New Delhi to take stock of the preparedness of the said hospital on April 10 and one had also expected Manipur to gear up and conduct the mock drill with all seriousness on April 10.

However as things have transpired, there is not much to write home about the mock drill, that is at least as of April 10.

Don’t know if a mass scale mock drill had been lined up on April 11, but it stands that there was nothing much to report on April 10.

Efforts to get minute information on the mock drill conducted here did not elicit the required response and The Sangai Express had to do with a one column report, a cursory report at best.

Certainly this is not the way to go about with the task of rolling up one’s sleeves to meet any exigency, given the way the virus behaves and its spread across the country.

The world is yet to be free of the virus, this is a given and information is a key component to take the fight to the virus.

This better sink into the consciousness of the people who matter.

And even as the rate of infection has seen an uptick in different parts of the country and even in Manipur, it is disheartening to note that the vaccination rate continues to be poor with ‘no one vaccinated in the last 24 hours’ becoming more than just a line in the statement issued by the Covid Control Room to the media everyday. This is cause for concern.

The past is the perfect teacher and if no lessons are learnt from the ‘not at all distant past,’ then it will defeat every step taken up in the fight against a virus as wily and unpredictable as the coronavirus.

Rewind to March 24, 2020 and Manipur should still remember the day when news of the first case of a positive case spread like wildfire.

Remember the instances of leikai heroes and heroines coming out to block the road as if hindering the movement of people would keep the virus at bay, remember how health workers who dealt with infected persons were treated with a barge pole and discouraged from returning home from their work place, which is the hospital in this case, and remember how many were pulled up and fined for not adhering to Covid Appropriate Behaviour and also keep in mind the lockdown.

Recalling all these instances to drive home the point that no one can be too careful and the mock drill call issued by the Union Health Minister is not something to be taken lightly.

From one single case on March 24, 2020, the number today stands at nearly 1.4 lakh.

In a span of three years, the number of infected persons has increased from one to nearly 1.4 lakh and this itself should say something on how fast the virus can spread.

Along with the fast spread is the number of deaths, which stands at over 2 thousand.

These figures should tell a very significant story and unfortunate it is that this reality seems to have blown over the heads of quite a number of people who matter.

There is a reason for issuing the call for a mock drill and there is no reason why this shouldn’t be taken with the seriousness it deserves.