CORONA THREAT

The black clouds of COVID-19 are still looming large; Jammu and Kashmir is no exception. More and more deaths and infections are detected with each passing day. The alarming death rate and the growing cases of the infection underline the fact that we ought to obey the health guidelines sincerely and seriously. Not following the guidelines is likely to undo all the good work that has been done as of today to prevent the deadly disease from going out of control.

What should open our eyes about the lethal virus and its capability to spread rapidly is the detection of more than one thousand COVID-19 patients a day across the hospitals of J&K. As per the official  figures ,Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday (18 April)  recorded 1,526 new coronavirus cases —the highest single day cases —including of 226 travellers, taking the total of infected people to 1,46,692, even as six fresh deaths in the past 24 hours took the toll to 2,057, officials said. Out of the fresh cases, 547 were from the Jammu division and 979 from the Kashmir division of the union territory, they said.

The signal is loud and clear: the situation is grave; we must drop the idea of taking COVID-19 easy. While the world is struggling to combat the deadly disease, the people in J-K need to realize that they cannot shut their eyes to the outbreak of the illness or stay away from adopting the COVID-correct conduct. Both tests and vaccines are a key to behead the virus. Complacency can accelerate the pace of infection. 

Pertinently, the health authorities continue to stress on the importance of obeying health guidelines, which includes the wearing of face masks, keeping physical distancing, ensuring hand hygiene, avoidance of public gatherings and using things of daily use carefully; they also stress on strictly executing the necessary instructions and the administrative mechanism. But it is noteworthy that the situation on ground has not possibly been taken as a wake-up call to protect one other from the lethal illness. 

While the public gatherings are taking place on impunity and people are seen moving around close to one other, the wearing of face masks, maintaining physical distancing, hand hygiene and the other necessary precautions are out of sight. Tragic but true is that one person among ten obeying the health guidelines is singled out for criticism and gossiping; if the person happens to be out for shopping or at work, he/she is laughed at. The main reason behind that is that nearly 90% people do not believe in the very existence of COVID-19, claiming that it is a myth. Those in the denial mode cannot ignore the harsh reality: millions of people around the world have lost livelihood while millions have been pushed into the smithy of poverty.

Although the magnitude of lockdowns last year and the subsequent results initially were very encouraging and effective in preventing the spread of the Coronavirus, the ongoing situation is alarming and threatens to beat all efforts aimed at controlling the pandemic.  A constant and efficient approach has been adopted by the authorities to ensure that the tracing and testing of the suspected cases of COVID-19 patients remain in operation. Yet, the illness seems to spread its tentacles across the Union Territory— in particular the Kashmir valley where most casualties are reported.

So grave is the situation that schools and the other educational institutions have been again closed just after a month when they reopened after they remained closed for months together with classes and exams held online or community classes were held. Further the seriousness of the situation can be realized from the administration's request to the religious leaders last year wherein they were asked 'to play the crucial role in bringing about a conscientious behavioral change among their followers regarding importance of wearing face masks, social distancing and adherence of guidelines and advisories related to the prevention of COVID-19'.

Health experts and scientists have warned us that in places where large numbers of people stay together for a long time, the infection can spread fast. The increased number of cases – in hundreds being detected daily— furnishes a solid proof about the behavior of the outbreak. The spike in the infected cases is challenging for tracing, testing and treating purposes, a situation which can be beyond control if the preventive measures as prescribed by the health authorities are not strictly observed to keep us, our family members , our neighbors and our colleagues safe from the dangerous COVID-19.

All of us can fall preys to the onslaught of the remorseless Coronavirus, the tiny enemy of humanity whose impact is huge and horrible. We have no option but to cooperate with the health authorities and play our key role in the battle against the deadly infection which looks set to chase us for ages if we do not strike back to ensure that we are out of danger. We need to understand that a single infected patient is enough for the villain virus to spread its infection. So let us obey health guidelines to eliminate the COVID-19 pandemic—the pandemic whose second wave is said to be more virulent than the previous one last year.

(Author is Teacher and RK Columnist. He can be reached on: Sheikhshabir518@gmail.com)