As coronavirus gains a strong foothold in India, people are demanding the government issue a ‘Covid Warrior’ certificate/identification to patients who have recovered from Covid-19. This can enable free and easy movement for them, and in some cases, help them find a livelihood.
LocalCircles conducted a survey to gauge the public opinion on the Covid Warrior certificates after Dr Abdul Ghafur, a Chenna-based expert on infections, proposed the concept.
The survey received over 16,000 votes from people located across 212 districts of India.
In the first question, citizens were asked if the government should consider issuing a Covid Warrior certificate to individuals who had recovered from Covid-19, so that they could take up jobs in Covid-19 hotspots or ones that require more person-to-person contact. In response, 69 per cent answered in a ‘yes’, while only 15 per cent answered in a ‘no’. The remaining 16 per cent were unsure.
Citizens were also asked, what, in their view, would be the best mode of issuing such a certificate, in the event of the government agreeing to issuing Covid warrior certificates/identification to all those who recovered from the disease. While 61 per cent said it should be integrated with Aadhaar, 30 per cent said it should be made a separate identification.
Moreover, ICMR in possession of the data on all people in the country who have recovered from Covid-19, and the same could easily be linked with UIDAI to create a new ‘Covid Warrior or Recovered’ field in the Aadhaar card, the report by LocalCircles added.
Ghafur stated in a statement: “We do know that those individuals (who have) recovered from the infection are immune to reinfection for a significant period (of time), and we haven’t witnessed any significant challenge of large-scale reinfection. Seven months after the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, there have been no confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection in India, as per ICMR, and just a single case at the global level.”
“Covid-19-infected individuals, after their complete recovery, should be permitted to travel without restrictions at regional and global levels and be viewed as soldiers in our war against Covid-19,” he added.
“One in 10 families will soon have at least one member who has recovered from Covid-19. Most companies will have employees who are Covid-19-recovered. Allowing these individuals to travel and work freely would be equivalent of having over 15 lakh soldiers in our national effort to alleviate the economic consequences and poverty inflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
According to Ghafur, a ‘Covid Warrior’ certificate or identification will help lakhs of daily wage workers, even in containment zones in India, commute and make a living.
However, many experts from around the world have warned about an imminent second wave of the coronavirus. The report by LocalCircles suggested that the Covid Warrior certificate or identification can be kept valid for six months for the recovered individuals.
LocalCircles noted that it will submit a copy of these findings to senior leaders in the Central Government, Ministry of Health, ICMR, and UIDAI, and request them to consider the concept, and if found feasible, move it to fast implementation.