There were talks all around that the way the pandemic is showing a massive rise, India is destined to overtake Brazil as the second most-affected country in the world. On late Sunday evening that happened and now a new fear is about to grip- within what time the US is going to be overtaken by India which will make it the worst-affected country. The gap currently hovers around 23 lakh and given the hard reality that the country is adding 90,000+ new cases daily, it will be a matter of just three weeks or so to reach that. Despite the differences of opinion it might trigger, it will be very difficult to bypass the question- what has been the real efficacy of these successive lockdowns, viewed as stringent in the world that has caused such huge damage to the economy? Was it ill-timed or ill-implemented…..? There will be a deluge of such uncomfortable questions now on the behalf of any citizen. Presumably, there is no immediate answer except for a lot of noise. Rather, a sincere fact-finding mission must be launched immediately to find out the precise lacunae and alter the response measures, if necessary.

Besides being the most-troubled zone in entire Asia, India will now be blamed for being the the largest contributor of new cases every day for almost nearly a month and in terms of quantum jumps, over the last 11 days, it has been very severe. After overtaking Brazil, it can very well be anticipated that the countdown for beating the US has just started since currently the most-affected country is reporting between 40,000 and 50,000 cases a day on an average, which is actually half India is adding daily. And to reflect the ground reality exactly as it is, it is obvious that recovery of nearly 32 lakh will give little assurance. There is also a strange interpretation that since 62% of the total cases have emerged only from five states namely Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, there is not to worry much in terms of the overall situation. This may be statistically true, but there is no guarantee that the other parts will not undergo the same fate in the coming months. Cases are also rising elsewhere including the NE and Arunachal which will add to the concern.

ICMR meanwhile in its revised testing advisory to the states on Saturday has said that a doctor’s prescription will no longer be required for people to get a Covid-19 test. This will streamline the process of testing to a great extent. Many other major steps are also necessary to keep in tune with the disturbing times.

The country is on the threshold of the most-grim milestone now- it’s sad but true.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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