It’s on us now to keep COVID-19 away

With restaurants, malls and religious places reopening from Monday following the easing of lockdown restrictions, a great responsibility has fallen on the shoulders of the general public in checking the spread of COVID-19. Karnataka, while satisfactorily managing to combat the pandemic, has ensured a high recovery rate and low fatality rate, and the gains of the past few months cannot be frittered away by reckless behaviour and imprudence. Now, with cases surging due to a large number of returnees from other states testing positive, neither the government nor the citizens can let the guard slip and risk community spread of the infection. The relaxation of institutional quarantine norms for returnees and the fact that over 80% of those tested positive are asymptomatic cases only compound the problem, calling for increased vigil. While there is no need to panic, it should be realised that from now on, if there is any single factor that can spell doom, it is lack of precautions.

All that is required of citizens is maintaining certain basic safeguards like personal hygiene, better civic sense, physical distancing and avoiding large congregations. But given the general disdain towards community cleanliness, it is imperative that punitive action for spitting, urinating and littering in public is implemented strictly and does not remain merely on paper. This should go hand-in-hand with providing clean and easily accessible public toilets. Another threat is of people on mandatory home quarantine violating guidelines and roaming freely in public areas and even travelling in buses, putting themselves and others at risk. Such people deserve no sympathy and should be prosecuted under the relevant provisions of law, so as to serve as an example for others. Since the government cannot be omnipresent, it falls to the individual to ensure that they do not endanger either themselves or others.

While at present the fear of contracting the virus seems to have restrained most people, it could be a matter of time before they throw caution to the winds, as already witnessed at some recent religious and political gatherings. There is also a chance of the managements of public places turning lax on implementing safety guidelines with the afflux of time. Both are equally dangerous. While the government has the larger role to play in preventing the spread of the disease, the baton has now passed into the hands of the public and unless we behave with utmost maturity and a sense of duty to fellow citizens and society, the war against Covid-19 will cause much unnecessary suffering. We shall then have none but ourselves to blame.