In the war against Covid-19 that went on ceaselessly over the last ten months and is still continuing, a great lesson that has been learnt by all is that there is no substitute for carefulness. While this has become almost an unwritten law, an instance of carelessness and irresponsibility on the part of a few citizens will definitely bring worries. Amid the escalating fear over the detection of a new COVID strain in the UK which is believed to be way lethal than its predecessor, the front page news carried by most dailies on Thursday that five UK-returned Indian citizens escaped post-COVID-infection vigil and managed to reach their destinations has caused a fresh wave of consternation. Thankfully and coming as a relief, all of the ‘escapists’ have been tracked down and are now under strict observation at government COVID facilities.
As per reports that have trickled in during the last 48 hours, five Covid-positive flyers from the UK went untraceable after landing at the Delhi airport and although three of them were traced by Tuesday night and admitted to Lok Nayak hospital in the national capital, one managed to flee to Ludhiana while the other reached Andhra Pradesh. Ahead of the Christmas and the new year, this has come as a real shocker for the health authorities who must be blamed for the negligence. Even if they are now under observation, the query that is chasing all is how many citizens have come in their contacts during the spell of evasion. Evidently, it will be nearly impossible to track all of them as the movements have involved interactions with common people. After this telling lapse of responsibilities by the returnees and also by the authorities entrusted to keep water-tight vigil on them, the new SOPs issued by the Centre which specifically underlines that all Covid positive passengers from the UK must be shifted to a separate isolation unit followed by their testing of samples for genome sequencing seem meaningless. Ahead of the Good Governance Day on Friday, this negligence by the country’s health authorities is a bad example indeed. If the chronology of the COVID war waged by the country so far is put under scanner, there will be multiple instances which will show how both the citizens and the authorities alike have failed to play their respective roles.
A strange confidence can also be observed among the citizens at large as if they have already been vaccinated, while the fact is that it’s at least 6 months from now when their turn will actually come after the first phase which will devote on the priority segments of the population.
During this period and particularly the festive week that lies ahead, the SOPs will be the real saviours.

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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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