FPJ Edit: All shooting in the dark on corona crisis

FPJ Edit: All shooting in the dark on corona crisis

EditorialUpdated: Tuesday, June 09, 2020, 01:02 AM IST
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Malls in Delhi wore a deserted look despite the easing of restrictions on Monday | PTI

Conflicting signals on the coronavirus pandemic have informed the official policy all along. In the absence of any clue as to how best to fight the novel strain of virus, all countries have had to adopt and adjust policy as they went along. India is no different. Even as critics accuse the Government of a most stringent lockdown, there are an equal number who contend that the lockdown should have been enforced much earlier. Rising number of infections and fatalities are blamed on the failure to lock down the country earlier than March 25th when the first phase of the shutdown was enforced. Neither side has a convincing rationale or data to back its claim. In fact, a leading industrialist the other day blamed the Government for the lockdown which he contended virtually locked out the economy. Experience of the industrialised world runs counter to his argument, but nonetheless he highlighted the difficulties in restarting the economy after over two months of the shutdown. Indeed, even medical scientists appeared clueless on the best possible treatment for the virus. The WHO itself was not very helpful in this regard. An example was the latest flip-flop on the research on hydroxychloroquine, banning it one day and permitting it the next. Nonetheless a number of pharma firms have undertaken research into the drug to test the claim that it could be effective in quelling the virus. But the uncontested advice of the WHO which was uniformly heeded concerned the lockdown, social distancing and testing. The complete lockdown in India in the first phase beginning March 25 was as per the WHO guidelines. This did help in keeping the infections and deaths relatively low, but since the gradual opening of the economy there is a sharp spurt in both these numbers. Consequently, a lack of clarity prevails on the movement of people, reopening of shops, offices and other establishments. Delhi and Mumbai, the two cities hit the most by the virus, have relaxed the lockdown from Monday, yet they are nowhere near returning to the pre-corona normal. Indeed, the Delhi Government seems unable to cope with the pandemic, with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal resorting to populist edicts such as FIRs against hospitals, denial of admission in city hospitals to ‘outsiders’, no testing of asymptomatic persons and commandeering of star hotels for housing quarantined individuals. Harrowing tales of endless runarounds by suspected victims of the virus from hospital to hospital and of an ugly greed of the private hospitals reveal the failure of the Delhi Government to frame a clear Standard Operating Procedure for the medical community. Worse, Kejriwal’s directive to hospitals and laboratories not to test asymptomatic persons aggravates the situation. Medical professionals have argued that the actual number of infected persons in the capital, as also in Mumbai, is far more than is being officially claimed by the respective State governments.

In such a grim scenario, opening up only endangers the public health further. Because nobody is sure as to how to deal with the situation, each state government has announced its own set of regulations. Goa, for instance, still wants its borders sealed. Delhi has had to open the borders with Haryana and UP following the intervention of the High Court. On Monday, the Lt. Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal voided the order of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal reserving exclusively all medical facilities in the capital for the local citizens. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan too has accused the Delhi Government of suppressing the actual number of infections and fatalities, a charge Opposition parties in West Bengal and Maharashtra have levied against the State governments. Meanwhile, despite the opening of malls, markets and religious places in most States on Monday, people were disinclined to visit them. Major markets in Delhi wore a deserted look on Monday. The nation finds itself at a cross-roads thanks to the pandemic. And it seems it has no idea as to which direction to take to overcome the current paralysis. We shudder to think of the plight of the aam aadmi in this utter state of confusion among the policy-makers.

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