Increasing number worryingUnderstand the reality

The number is frightening, but then statistics do not lie and the truth should be digested, however unpalatable it is. For two days on the trot, Manipur has logged more than one thousand new cases per day and this reflects how widespread the virus is today. The reality is, Manipur is today in the deep throes of community transmission, and surprisingly this term is no longer in vogue now, with even the daily bulletin issued by the COVID-19 Common Control Room no longer mentioning the travel history of any of the new infected cases. With no travel history or with a known travel history, is a term that was used regularly when any new positive case was detected earlier, but today the need to explain this part has been done away with. A clear indication that the cases now are all about local transmission with no one knowing from where one could have gotten infected. This is the reality and at such a critical moment, it incumbent for everyone to strictly follow the Covid Appropriate Behaviour. The fact is, no one seems to stick to the behaviour recommended by the World Health Organisation and Indian Council of Medical Research and enforced by the State Government. Save for ten days or so, the daily positivity rate in Manipur has always been above the 10 percent mark since June and this should have made the people come to the point that in as much as it is the duty of the Government to deal with the pandemic, the people too have a reciprocal duty to check the spread of the virus. The daily statistics of new infections and deaths however tell a different story and in the count of above 1000 cases in a single day lies the reality of where the SOPs lie in the consciousness of the people. The Government too should live by its order and not twist the understanding of containment zone, curfew or whatever term one gives it for what one sees on the roads of Imphal daily come nowhere near any restrictions being imposed on the gathering and movement of people.
Just take a look at what is happening and one will get a fair idea of how the understanding of restrictions have been clobbered for a big six. This is the very reason why traffic police personnel are now constrained to come out and regulate flow of traffic. This is again another reason why traffic signals at different traffic points are now being put to use. It is not without reason why the Centre has written to all the States and the Union Territories to remind them that the second wave is still on and in some States, such as Manipur, there is no sign that it is ebbing. Why this simple fact cannot register in the minds of the people is baffling. It is this mindset which can be said to be one of the broken links in the measures taken up by the Government since April 29. Else how can the virus spread so widely and so freely ? Humans are the main carriers of the coronavirus and it spreads from one human to another human and breaking the chain then should mean that people should not congregate for the virus to spread. The Government will also need to take a look at the home isolation model and while it has already notified that the suitability of a house for a positive person to opt for home isolation would be studied, it is still not clear how many houses have been inspected. Given the circumstances, the Government should seriously study the model of home isolation for it stands that majority of the houses in Manipur would not be suited to keep anyone effectively isolated. The increasing number is deeply worrying and time for some hard decisions to be adopted.