Hope For A New Dawn
By: Harshit Mehra
Tags: Covid 19, First Post, Covid 19 Crisis, Hope, World

“Help! For I am bound inside a prison of concrete, the world goes on unashamed of its apathy. It, a prisoner too of pandemics and histories and progress.” These are the mutilated feelings of every single human being on this planet of hope and despair at this moment.

In the world of pandemics, if it's either SARS of 2002 or MERS of 2011, one more addition had arrived, COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV2 virus. It has upended societies, turned lives of nations and nations upside down. It had spread at a speed that even the most pessimistic forecasts had not anticipated. Number of infections increased exponentially, and the death toll rose up to 1 million and still counting. Societies, businesses, economies shut down because of the drastic impact of the disease that had hit everybody to the core of their sectors. With a snap, roads went empty, crowds became too small, and no trace of life could be found outside, everybody got locked up in their houses, and world went desolate. And this horror-like dream became our reality and now every single soul is living with this reality.

Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash

But could this pandemic have been prevented? And even if not prevented, was there any way by which the aftermath of this outbreak could be contained better and could have saved more lives? I guess so. Coronavirus outbreak started from Wuhan, China and the first case outside of China was reported in Thailand on January 13th 2020. And within a span of mere 17 days, WHO declared it as Public Health Emergency of International Concern. India could have locked down all international arrivals immediately or could have started screening all the international passengers. But like all the other nations of the world, India also kept waiting and watching for this disease to take a monstrous form. A proper committee of epidemiologists, researchers, economists, administrators, logistic experts should have been implemented to work out comprehensive and concrete solutions. WHO declared Covid-19, a pandemic on 11th March, and on 24th March 2020, the Government of India ordered a nationwide lockdown of 21 days, and then it was further extended it until 3 May. And from then it kept extending and locking-unlocking continued. And till October, the unlocking kept implementing in various phases. Due to lockdown, more than 350 deaths were reported as of 10th May, with reasons ranging from starvation, suicides and exhaustion, road and rail accidents, police brutality, and denial of timely medical care. Among the reported deaths, most were among the marginalized migrants and laborers. GDP growth rate for April-June 2020 reached -23.9%, the worst ever in history. The manufacturing, construction, trade, hotel industry saw a decline and slid into negative. This lockdown had been “almost a death sentence” for the underprivileged of the country.

WHO declared Covid-19, a pandemic on 11th March.

Collectively, governments and citizens have underestimated the disease as well as the importance of masks for the prevention of virus. Misleading information gave birth to bizarre conspiracy theories. People denied mask rules and called them oppressive and attack on democracy. Many world leaders also opposed wearing of masks and many were found denying the existence of the pandemic. Masks, washing hands, sanitizing, social distancing, these are the best defenses that we have, they can save lives. In India and many other countries, face masks are mandatory but still, cases were reported where guidelines were not followed properly.

Mistakes happened and it had cost lives, it was difficult to anticipate the migrant worker problem before announcement of first lockdown, still the solution could have been implemented within seven days which was finally announced after five weeks about special trains. Railways had boasted that coaches had been converted into isolation and containment wards, so it was possible to screen migrant labourers. All the major national entrances exams and university exams were conducted amid pandemic in physical centers, they could have been avoided easily. We should have had a health information exchange before the outbreak occured in country, an HIE project could have provided reports about all the thermal screening at the airports and patients registering in hospitals, with better data and analytics, more broad and better measures and policies could have been developed. Numerous incidents were reported where the hospitals had scarcity of resources, doctors, nurses, medical staff, all lacked protective gears and PPEs. Export of the PPEs could have been closed when the news of outbreak surfaced. A delay of responding to the this public health emergency has caused a serious concern.

Where this pandemic has been a nightmare to all our lives there are positive shed too. COVID-19 situation has positively impacted the way we emote and maintain relationships. We got to spend time with our families and plan our work better. Life slowed down, but it helped in maintaining the pace with our connections, either emotional, spiritual or physical. We learnt the importance of hygiene, washed our hands regularly and thorougly. Some lifestyle changes like Namaste instead of shaking hands, sanitizing hands after touching anything, wearing masks in the public places, social distancing made us aware that we shall never lose touch and emote with fellow beings. Creativity and art has found a new way to enter in our lives, a number of projects and innovations are conducted midst this lockdown period. The section of the country which was unfamiliar with the digital world and internet also got to try their hands on virtual world. Remote working became mainstream which taught us that most of the businesses and tasks can be handled by working from home too. Our world is fighting this pandemic everywhere, and we surely going to overcome this. Our race has survived for billions of years and we will survive through this also. I agree battle is hard and long. But after every darkest night, there is always a dawn that welcomes us for a new beginning and a new chapter of life.