Virus from Wuhan & India's Response!
COVID-19 a Havoc: India’s Response
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती II
Something very strange was emanating from Wuhan,china was being widely speculated since end weeks of December 2019. The worst fear came true when first overseas case was reported in Thailand on January 14,2020. As the spread happened globally India also started taking precautions to restrict the entry of virus in India. But the nightmare of everyone came true when on January 30, first case was reported in Kerala.
Subsequent steps taken are chronicled below-
Act1 Janta Curfew Announcement (Duration
28:54 mn) !! PM Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on March 19, 2020
Thursday at customary 8 PM was the first official acknowledgement of a danger
which was to engulf an emerging global superpower across length and breathe.
As always expected from a populist
leader like Narendra Modi, who coincidentally is the most popular leader since Independent
India, he appealed to observe “Janta Curfew” on March 22, 2020 Sunday between
7AM-9PM- a self-imposed restriction on movement by citizens. True to the
trademark style of Modi, he went one step ahead and asked fellow citizen to pay
tribute to all front-line fighters against the war on Covid. How? By coming out
at balconies and clapping, clanging the utensils for 5 minutes at sharp 5 PM.
What a masterstroke this was played
by a simple looking yet enigmatic Modi !! This gesture not only created a
another saga of Modi Magic across globe but also disarmed his arch critics for
a long time ahead.. In my best of estimate Mr. Modi knew very well what disaster
this Coming COVID-19 will make in life of a 139 billion people.
ACT2 First Lock-down (Duration
29:01 mn)!! With the tempo set on his March 19 speech, it was known best to
Mr.Modi who is blessed with uncanny ability of telepathy that now he is no
less than Napoleon Bonaparte can ask for any sacrifice from the people..
Not only people will follow what he wants them to but also they will ensure to
enforce this on his behalf in case of any violation.
So two days after “Janta Curfew”,
on March 24, 2020 Mr.Modi during his 8 PM speech announced a nationwide
lock-down from 00:00 hours of March 25 which was barely 3.5 hours after his
speech, for 3 weeks aka 21 days... It is beyond any possible doubt that PM and his coterie did not anticipate the
panic buying this short notice this would create among people but true to his
grit of surgical strike he did what he thought was right!! So much frenzy and
psychological stress this created among all especially the lower economic class
who aren’t financially sound enough to stock 3 weeks of essential items at
home.
Nevertheless this was credited as a
Masterstroke and PM came out as a messiah against COVID-19.
So each and every sensible person
of India, within and outside country participated in this preponed Diwali!
ACT4 Second Lock-down (Duration
21:49 mn)!! April 14, 2020 Tuesday at 10 AM; last day of lock-down 1.0, PM
addressed the nation. This time a lot of emphasis was put in the achieved
success so far in curbing the spread of COVID and relative better performance
vs global superpowers were also given enough space in the brief. Cautioning at
the same time that battle is half way thus concluding the address by extending
the lock-down for another 19 days till May 3.
ACT4 Third Lock-down (Press
Release)!! May 1, 2020 Friday; 2 days before the end of second lock-down Ministry
of Home Affairs (MHA) came in the picture for the first time and taking the
base of Disaster Management Act 2005 passed an ore to extend the lock-down by
another 2 weeks. This was the first entry of Man Friday of Mr. Modi, Amit Shah
in the COVID battle. Establishment has by now figured out, that this Pandemic
is not going anywhere soon and it will be futile if economic activities were
continue to remain paralyzed..
With 40 days gone, 3 major events
celebrated – Clapping/clanging, Diya lighting and public scrutiny of Nizamuddin
Markaz and its leader Muhammad Saad.
Districts across nations were
profiled in three categories ie Red, Orange and Green. With no cases reported
in last 21 days Green zones were allowed to start the activities with caution,
still restriction were in place between 7PM-7AM.
ACT5 Call for Self-Reliant Nation
(Duration 34:05 mn)!! May 12, 2020 Tuesday ; full 5 days prior to the end
of third lock-down, Mr.Modi gave his customary appearance once again to the
fatigued citizens but this time not showing the locked gate to but an window of
opportunity and coming back to normalcy. PM announced an economic package worth
of 20 lakh crore.
Interestingly even after good 90
days of this announcement people are still wondering what was there in that 20
lakh crore and how people will benefit to make their living little more
bearing!!
ACT6 Fourth Lock-down on May
17. 2020 just few hours before end of lock-down another extension of two weeks was
once again announced by MHA, and this time lot of flexibility was left at the
discretion of states and union territories about various movements. However
public transport mainly Train, Airport and Ship was still in control of MHA.
Fourth lock-down will end on May 31.
At the start of fourth of lockdown COVID-19
spread statistics were as: Total death toll 2872, number of active cases touched
90927 and surpassed over China. New cases reported on 17th May were
4,987.
ACT7 Fifth Lock-down or Unlock1.0
(Press Release)!! May 31, 2020 Sunday; Interior ministry announced phase 5
of the nationwide lock-down until June 30, to contain the ever-increasing
Pandemic. These restrictions were meant more for the containment zones i.e. Red
zone. To further smoothen the economic activities, places of worship, shopping
malls, hotels and hospitality sector were allowed to open wef 8th
June.
On the day of announcement May 31,
India witnessed the highest single day death toll of 265, also 7964 new cases
were also reported that day. Total death toll 4,971 and total number of cases
reached to 173,763.
Now the emphasis of ruling political
class both at Centre and states was to undo the economic damage caused by
virtually zero economics activities in last 99 days.
Isn’t this an irony when there was
very less spread of COVID-19, entire nation was put on seize and now
when the wicked virus was showing its real kill power both in new cases and
mortality rate , governments were scouting for every possible excuse to unlock
the nation. The seize in the first half was so severe that even Indian Defense
forces were found off guard and faced an act of betrayal from our all-time foe
China at Galwan Valley. 20 of our brave soldiers were martyred and caused
double damage to China.
Till July 1, total death toll had
reached 17,400 with Maharashtra, Delhi and Tamil Nadu contributing 70 %, total
active cases reached 5, 85,493; highest single day spike of 18,563 was reported
on July 1.
Distractions : A virtue at times
Like every calamity of such
magnitude leaves a thick trail of signs, here are few which came in highlight,
full credit for which goes to vigilant Media. Media played a vital role to
lighten the spirit of citizens by picking up menial issues and then blown them
out of proportion in order to carve the insatiable demand of Breaking News culture.
Nizammudin The forgotten area
who was once the must have destination for food aficionados crash-landed as THE
DESTINATION courtesy Markaz and Moh. Saad...
Galwan Valley There is much
more to Ladakh than just the Pangong Tso and tourism. Valour of Indian army was
at the Centre stage once again on the night of June 14. This incident has
occupied mind and spirit of populace since last 90+ days. By the way SFF (Special
Frontier Forces) was a pleasant surprise entry.
ICMR (Indian Council of
Medical research) An oldest and largest research body in world, founded in
1911 got its share of existence after 109 years. This is an apex body in India
for the formulation, coordination and promotion of medical research.
Lav Agarwal Sauve bureaucrat
as Joint Secretary of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare took the centre
stage during the interaction with media and handled COVID-19 related
queries with much ease and composure. Mr.Agarwal is an alumni of Indian
Institute of Technology, Delhi.
N-95 masks, PPE (Personal Protective
Equipment), HCQ (Hydroxychloroquine), RT-PCR (Real Time- Polymerase Chain Reaction)
Test, Rapid Antigen test, Aarogya Setu App which was launched very fast on April 3.
Torchbearers
In this prolonged crisis I must appreciate
the efforts of 3 key personalities:
PM Narendra Modi- For
leading from the front and having regular communication with fellow citizens.
In times of crisis the lack of information is the big pull down and makes
things more complicated, but our PM ensured nothing that sort happens though in
few cases this information was little excess and unproductive . Having said
that, only by his sheer grit and proactive approach he managed to keep deadly
virus in back foot, otherwise it is frightening to imagine the havoc this could
have created in country of poor medical infrastructure, population of 139
Billion and democratic system which puts many of the limitations unlike
draconian countries China is the apt example.
Electronic Media- 24*7
coverage of the pandemic ensured people are flooded with excess information and
start believing in OK Theory. As the famous saying goes Luck favours the
bravest, media was never short of burning topics Markaz, Galwan clashes,
Pangong TSO, SSR, Kangana Ranaut Vs Shiv Sena, Digital strike on Chinese businesses
etc..
News channels managed to achieve unimaginable. Their relentless approach of bringing every topic with a spin of positivity and victorious flavor uplifted the spirit of each citizen, consequently COVID-19 lost its ferocity on the psychological front. Is it not a miracle that country with 139 billion is still ranked 3rd in mortality and recovery rate is highest.
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| Community Participation against COVID-19 |
A new species has cropped in this crisis - Hospital
staff, Indian Railway, Police and paramilitary forces. Before pandemic image of
police force was corrupt and unproductive. The selfless service rendered by
these personnel made things little easy for other functions and public order
never spilled out of control.
At a time when even the close relations did develop cracks, these COVID-19 Warriors came as देवदूत and helped the needy one be it in their fight against pandemic or helping the old age people who were left on their own by close relatives...
OMNAMAH
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