Covid-19: Wear masks, exercise caution, don’t panic

There are lessons to be learnt from the experience the country itself has in dealing with three waves of the pandemic

Just as the world thought that the Covid-19 pandemic was coming to an end, the virus is surging again in many parts of the world. There is concern in India, which suffered badly for about two years, over a fresh Covid challenge, and alerts have been sounded by the central and stare governments. Genomic testing of samples for new strains of the virus has started. Consultations and review meetings are being held at ministerial and official levels. Karnataka and some other states have again made the wearing of masks mandatory in closed spaces. There is the considered view that India does not have to worry much about a return of the pandemic. The number of active cases is low. The vaccination programme has covered a large segment of the population, and most people may have acquired some immunity from vaccinations and infections. But these are no reasons for being complacent about new variants of the virus.

The new worries have been caused by the viral outbreak in China, South Korea, Japan, and the US. The worst-affected country is China where millions of people are suspected to have been affected, with the pandemic still spreading. The outbreak is considered to be the result of the failed strategy the country followed until recently to contain the disease. Other affected countries have also got their own specific reasons. Compared with them, the situation in India is better. But there are lessons to be learnt from the experiences of these countries and from the experience the country itself has in dealing with three waves of the pandemic.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chaired a high-level meeting to assess the situation. He has directed officials to strengthen the ongoing surveillance measures, especially at international airports. The preparedness of the health infrastructure has to be improved and the vaccination programme needs to be revived. There are more vaccines available now than in the past and they should be efficiently deployed. There is still no reliable information about the variants of the virus that may be present in the country. It is even possible that the number of cases is low because testing is low. Testing, surveillance, and genomic sequencing have to be done on a wider scale and more efficiently and strategies have to be prepared accordingly. The Prime Minister has urged everyone to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour, including wearing of masks in crowded public places, especially in view of the upcoming festive season. While there is no cause for panic, caution is necessary. Governments, at the Centre and in the states, should avoid the slippages, pitfalls and misjudgements that aggravated the pandemic situation in the past.