Recoveries may have overtaken active cases in India, but we must not drop our guard. Public carelessness threatens not just our health but also chances of an economic revival
According to the government’s figures, India’s total count of covid patients who had recovered was 135,205 on Wednesday, while active cases were 133,632. For the first time since the outbreak of this cure-defying viral illness in India, recoveries exceeded the number of those among us who’d tested positive for infection but were yet to put it behind them. Reports say that our daily average of active-case additions over the past week was 4,529, thankfully lower than that of people getting well again, at 5,397. This suggests progress against the disease. Our recovery rate has been helped along by a domestic fatality rate that is lower than in other badly-hit countries. About 95% of India’s closed cases so far have been of survivors, as estimated, and most of them suffered only mild symptoms. Yet, we must resist the temptation to heave a sigh of relief. It has been more than four months since the country reported its first case, and the recovery count has gone up more or less in line with total cases, but our testing rate has been inexplicably poor, evidence of community transmission has mounted, and the infection curve remains far too steep for comfort. This is no time to drop our guard. Instead, we need to be even more alert. The pandemic is still raging and our exposure risk is higher than ever now.
The covid threat has grown in both intensity and expanse. Daily new infections have been around 10,000 for the past several days, the situation in Maharashtra, Delhi and Tamil Nadu is grim, and new hotspots have begun to emerge in eastern states after the return of migrant workers from high-infection urban zones. The purpose of the lockdown’s phased lifting was to grant the economy a breather, on the assumption that people at large were aware enough of the dangers by now. However, the patterns of public behaviour observed since the easing began earlier this month place a question mark over whether we can curb corona contagion. Look around. Wherever people gather, be it shopping centres, transport nodes or screening counters, caution can be seen being thrown to the wind. People can be observed casually milling around roadside tea stalls. In some places, there seems little respite from the chance of getting jostled or elbowed. In others, complacency best describes the attitudes on display.
Why is this happening? One major reason could be corona fatigue. People locked in for too long may have grown weary of acting against their instincts and they long for the familiarity of their old ways. Despite their awareness of safety norms, large numbers seem content to let fate dictate their health. No less unnerving is the permissiveness that seems to have taken hold of many who ought to know better. Upmarket housing complexes, for example, report difficulties in trying to get brash residents to observe elementary rules. Careless conduct is not just a health hazard, it is also self-defeating from the perspective of our financial well-being. So long as the epidemic is getting the better of our combined efforts, our economy cannot expect to recover. To relieve us of our misfortune, hopes are pinned on a return to economic growth in the second half of 2020-21, followed by a bounce-back in 2021-22. Such projections, though, are based on covid scenarios that assume significant success by then. For that, common sense must prevail over coronavirus.
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