Complete lockdown imperative

A total lockdown is inevitable when containment measures don’t work and the Covid infection rate refuses to flatten. While the second Covid wave is more devastating than the first, a section of the public does not reem to realize the gravity of the situation. With Covid positive cases rising every day and the number of deaths turning to mere statistics, a total lockdown is the only remedy. Granted that a lockdown is an unnatural phenomenon and a burden on daily wagers, apart from the psychological trauma of being cooped up inside small homes with hardly any breathing space, but harsh times call for harsh measures. For those in charge of meeting the exigencies – namely those in government and health care professionals these are indeed trying times. Critics on social media will never understand what those manning the system currently, actually go through. And they cannot take time off and say they are fatigued!
The system is at breaking point and we are well aware of it. They can only do the best they know in a scenario where they are handling an enigmatic virus. What they should not be burdened with is an uncooperative citizenry. This pandemic is a call to every person in and outside of Government to work together to contain the spread. It is not just the Government’s responsibility to do so by imposing restrictions. The communities should be volunteering to assist Government efforts at their level. There is an innate wisdom that resides with the community and this was amply demonstrated in the first wave. Let this wisdom and voluntarism come to the fore now when it is most needed.
Despite the show of bravado, health workers are at breaking point attending to Covid patients round the clock. Hospitals are overburdened by patients needing critical care. The difference this time is that Covid has spread even to the hamlets of the State, thereby, making containment a challenge. The spread this time is essentially due to lack of institutionally managed quarantine centres for returnees. Home isolation is a farce and this has been borne out by ample evidence when the phone numbers and other details of returnees were found to be misleading. The problem is that every person believes he/she is healthy until Covid strikes and strikes the vulnerable members of their families. Then the inevitable happens and death is the price that society pays for the indiscriminate behaviour of a few.Last year satellite markets had opened up in Upper Shillong and other areas. They helped contain crowding. With the return to apparent “normalcy” these markets dwindled and the rush to Iewduh began. Government should reflect and learn lessons from such episodes. Marketplaces are essentially crowd pullers. This challenge needs a nuanced approach.