Price of callousness

Even though India had more than enough time (more than one year) to prepare to deal with a possible second wave of COVID-19, the administration remained defunct and complacent (“India reports another record daily rise in virus infections,” April 19, Gulf Today).

Now federal and state governments are accusing each other for their inactions and people are dying on the streets. Actually, I believe, the current spread is not a second wave as widely published but the continuation of undetected cases of the first wave. The religious festivals at regular intervals coupled with electioneering complicated the situation to an uncontrollable level.

Most of the people are not following COVID appropriate behaviour in public places. Religious leaders and politicians including the Prime Minister led the public gatherings at many places. The South Indian state of Kerala which had successfully contained the virus in the initial stages has now become a den of COVID patients, thanks to the so called complacency. Most people are under the notion that COVID is just like influenza and that fatality rate is negligibly small.

India is still not prepared to deal with COVID-19 in a scientific way by using all available resources. The number of ICU beds are still limited, hospitals are running out of oxygen, vaccination is more or less unsuccessful due to shortage of jabs, millions are living in acute poverty, people are flouting COVID protocols, etc, etc.

India could have made available other successful vaccines such as Pfizer, J & J and Moderna to mitigate the crises in a short span of time. Instead, the administration has so far accelerated the production and export of Astra Zeneca vaccine by undermining the local demands. Is this called vaccine diplomacy? India, in my opinion, is competing with China unsuccessfully without knowing the fact that their priorities are entirely different. In short, India needs to do better to contain the spread of the virus.

Girish R Edathitta
Kerala, India