Vaccine and SOP

AS the coronavirus cases are surging once again in Jammu and Kashmir, the doctors are asking people to observe a civil imposed civil curfew. This is a good suggestion as the fight against Covid-19 pandemic has to be fought by the people. They can choose to exercise caution in their public behaviour, wear mask and wash hands. This alone is the least detrimental way out of the current crisis. Other option and which is the complete lockdown has proved more disastrous than the pandemic, leaving thousands unemployed.  J&K has witnessed a 10-fold increase in COVID-19 infections over the last three weeks. However, it is still relatively less than the runaway surge in some other parts of the country.  On Tuesday India’s total tally of COVID-19 cases climbed to over 15 million with 2,59,170 new coronavirus infections.  The active cases, as a result, have surpassed the 20-lakh mark.  The death toll has increased to 1,80,530 with a record 1,761 new fatalities. This is a scary situation. The videos of the burning of pyres in some states have gone viral. The states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, and Karnataka  have contributed most to the rising cases of coronavirus in the country. This has forced many countries to put India on no-travel list. The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has cancelled his scheduled India visit.

India has already approved the use of more foreign vaccines in the country. The single-dose multinational pharma giant Johnson & Johnson has applied to India’s drug regulator seeking permission to conduct phase-3 clinical trial of its   vaccine  as well as import license. licence.

The union government on Monday announced that all persons above 18 years of age will be eligible to get COVID-19 vaccine doses from May 1. This will go a long to arrest the spread of the contagion as even young people will be eligible for the inoculation. But the new “double mutant” strain will be certainly a challenge to the government. It is thought to more visitors virulent than the previous strain. So, along with the vaccine it will even more important for people to exercise self restraint and observe Standard Operating Procedure.  Government, on its part, needs to enforce some discipline among people who choose to go out for some work. For example, the people not wearing masks should face some penal action. The gatherings, both official, cultural and religious, should be discouraged.  This alone can reduce the cases to manageable levels and eventually enable government reign the contagion in.