Crossing the 1 lakh 'milestone' : Pace in the latter half
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 04, 2021 -

As expected, and this is being said without sounding pessimistic.

The 541 positive cases recorded on August 2 was after all just a blip on the radar and just 24 hours later, Manipur is back - with 753 positive cases with 14 more deaths.

In the process the number of positive cases has crossed the 1 lakh mark and what is worrying is not only the total number of positive cases, but the pace in which the 'milestone' has been reached. Manipur recorded her first Covid case on March 24, 2020 and it took more than a year to reach the 50,000 mark.

In other words from March 24, 2020 the number of positive cases in the State went to 50,751 on May 31, 2021.

More than a year it took for the cumulative number of positive cases to reach the half a century mark.

The script changed from June 1, 2021 with Manipur beginning to consistently log above the 500 mark daily and it was only on June 14 (459), June 17 (495), June 21 (353) June 28 (432) that the State logged below the 500 mark in a month of 30 days.

Here again, it needs to be noted that the 353 total logged on June 21 may appear low but its daily positivity rate was a high 15.59 percent.

Step into July and it was only on the 5th of the last month that Manipur saw below 500 new cases, with 432.

Thereafter the number of new cases logged on each day has always been the above 500 mark with many more days totalling more than the 1000 mark.

For nine days, the month of July saw more than 1000 new cases on a day and on July 14 it was 1104, July 15 (1039), July 16 (1128), July 17 (1171).

In short for four consecutive days Manipur saw each day logging more than 1000 cases. It did not end there for on July 20 and July 21, the case's logged were 1127 and 1327 respectively.

Then from July 23, Manipur logged more than 1000 cases for three straight days with July 23 logging 1284 cases, July 24 (1198) and July 25 (1207).

Fatalities, mostly above the double digit mark, accompanied the fast rising new cases and this is how Manipur saw a total of 49,874 cases logged from June to the beginning of August, 2021.

If statistics say that July has been the worst month of the pandemic, so far, let it also not be forgotten that the curtailment on the movements of people was taken up a notch or two higher with total curfew first imposed on July 18 for 10 days and then extended by a week till August 3.

Till the time this commentary is being penned down, it is not clear what decision the Government has taken, that is whether to extend the total curfew or bring in some relaxations.

It should be kept in mind that any decision the Government takes will be based on the cold statistics that have just been spelt out and it definitely will not be an easy task to come to a decision.

The important point is, whether the statistics which have been read out via the radio, the local cable television and the daily newspapers have had any impact on the thinking of the people or not.

Give a little relaxation and the past is more than enough lesson on how people throw caution to the wind and come out like there is no tomorrow.

Perhaps Imphal must be the only place on earth where road accidents and traffic jams can occur when there is a total curfew underway.

The number of positive cases and the rising number of deaths just do not seem to have cut ice with many of the people and this is perhaps the biggest tragedy.

Obviously the mentality of the people will also have to be taken into account before the Government takes any decision on whether to ease the restrictions or not.

The final call is with the Government, but to a large extent it will depend on how the people have been responding to the call for all to stick to the Govid Appropriate Behaviour.