Vaccine conundrum
Shillong’s response to the second wave of COVID has been a mixed one. While the lockdown effect is almost the same for all, the individual response to the burgeoning cases of infection and fatalities has been as varied as 0 to 360 degrees. At one extreme are some who have taken it in their stride, while, at the other, there has been a bizarre response of defiant disregard for undertaking tests and vaccination. Despite government’s endeavour to encourage vaccination, a large section of senior citizens have remained unmoved.
However, the response of the 18-44 age group has been quite positive as is borne out by the mad rush for on-line registration during all three phases of vaccination made available by the health authorities so far. On all the days, the zero hour was 12 noon for on-line registration. No sooner did the clock strike 12 than there was a frenetic move for getting an OTP and a slot for the vax. Many were left frustrated as the process could not be completed as the day’s quota of vaccine was over in no time.
A young man who twice tried unsuccessfully to get a slot, made some smarter preparation for the third attempt. The smart fella took an additional cover this time. He arranged with his friend in Guwahati to try simultaneously for registration for him. And guess what, despite trying his best, he received a regret message on his mobile saying that there was no more slot available, while his friend sitting a hundred kilometres away did the trick. How a person sitting in Guwahati could get a favourable response when it failed locally is besides the point. But this ingenious way of enlisting for a jab is a big takeaway.
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Fastest Fingers First…
Those of our readers familiar with the popular game show Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) will remember that in order to reach the hot seat and to actually play the game, participants have to ace the ‘Fastest Fingers First’ criterion.
Shillongites have now been playing the Fastest Fingers First for the past two weeks and only a lucky few have been emerging successful. If you haven’t figured it out yet, we are talking about booking vaccine slots in the CoWIN portal, the Arogya Setu and the UMANG apps.
A family woke up on Sunday, energised and determined to book two slots this time. The father sat with his laptop; the mother was ready with her smartphone while their daughter decided to chip in with her mobile tablet. They opened the CoWIN portal precisely at 11.45 am. All was set. The registration had been completed last week itself. The clocks struck 12 noon. The family members run their fingers vigorously across the portal, carefully filling in their pin code. The seconds ticked by. Hope turned into desperation. By 12.07 pm all available slots, both free and paid, had been filled up. Down but not out, the family now has one week to figure out how to beat others to the slot booking which would be made available for the first week of June.
No dearth of volunteers
There are many who wish to offer their services at this time to ease the burden of the health workers in handling the pandemic.
A young lady – Risa Bameri Umdor Tham, presently studying in Class XII, decided to utilise the lockdown hours last year meaningfully. She asked her parents to enrol her into the Coursera online course under John Hopkins University, USA for Covid-19 contact tracing course.
Having completed the course and being given a certificate from the University, Risa has offered her services to the National Health Mission to assist the health workers of Mawroh PHC in contact tracing of Covid-19-infected persons to stem the spread of the pandemic. This is time gainfully employed in a humanitarian cause. There are others too who wish to contribute in different ways to ease the burden of health workers, especially those in mission hospitals, but for want of a platform to channelise their donations they remain non-plussed. There is a genuine need for a credible people’s movement to mobilise help from all quarters and to channel them in the right direction to meet the needs of health workers and of others in need of basic needs.
Finally a War Room
The district administration has recently created a much needed War Room to handle distress calls from the public. The helpline is expected to provide all assistance in getting COVID information, ambulance or any other related service. We take heart that the creation of War Room is an impact of an editorial suggestion in this daily.
