COVID19 LOCKDOWN DAY3 (27.3.2020)

Social distancing means that we all must avoid contact with others as far as possible. That has meant that people should stay at home and only go out to buy essential food and medicines only.

Like many other people, the moment the Prime Minister’s announcement of a three-week lockdown came on Tuesday night, my son and daughter rushed to the markets to buy stuff to stock up. Of course, we have stocked up enough to last out a couple of months. But what about those who are on daily wages? We saw the plight of many of them on television as many men queued up for food and many others were stopped at the border as they tried to get home.

Often, I look at the houses in the village across the road and wonder how much residents have been able to stock up. On old gentleman I called up told me that they did not have vegetables but were prepared to hole up for a couple of months surviving on whatever rice and dal they had at home. Besides, he and his wife have halved their intakes to stretch things out longer.

Last night the Health Minister came on TV and gave details of steps taken by his ministry to combat the COVID19 outbreak. I was not surprised to hear that he had moved very quickly after the first case had been identified in China and formed a group of experts as early as January 8 to make recommendations on how to minimise the impact. I had seen Dr. Harsh Vardhan in action when he was the Delhi health minister tackling the 1994 pneumonic plague and wiping out polio through pulse polio. The first case (in Kerala) was identified on January 30, according to a government release. A month later by the first week of March the number of positive cases had risen to 29, according to a statement in the Rajya Sabha by the Health Minister. But for the past few days we are being told that there is severe shortage of test kits, personal protective equipment (PPE) and even ventilators.

US President Donald Trump has to take the cake. It was only some weeks back that he had declared the COVID19 pandemic as a hoax perpetrated by the Democrats to make him lose this year’s presidential election. He even snidely called the virus the “Chinese” virus triggering off prejudice against Americans of Chinese origin. Now he has to eat humble pie as the United States seeks Chinese help as the number of cases in the US has exceeded that in China. He is more respectful of the Chinese and these days desists from calling COVID19 as the “Chinese virus”.