Back to two figure daily TPR Blip on Covid radar

It was more of a blip on the Covid radar and Manipur is back again to reporting the daily positivity rate in double digit. On August 16, Manipur reported a daily positivity rate of 9.29 percent, the report for which was filed the following day on August 17. It was the lowest since June 17 this year and not surprisingly, the State has now gone back to reporting the daily positivity rate in two figures, with the August 17 figure coming out on August 18 and recording the daily positivity rate at 10 percent. And this is how the situation has been like for months now and the fact that the number of infected continues to increase in triple digits, despite the days of restrictions which came under different terms such as containment, total curfew etc, in an indication that something somewhere is terribly wrong. Has the Government studied all the possible reasons that could be driving up the number of positive cases ? Making things more worrying is the report from the Health Director, Dr K Rajo that more and more children are testing positive for the virus in the second wave and the number of children infected during the second wave, that is till August 15 has been put at 12,322. The figure is worrying and what has made matters all the more dicey is the prognosis from experts that children will be infected more in the third wave, which many believe will come. Manipur is still struggling to keep afloat during the second wave and with more than 10,000 children infected in the current wave, one can imagine how the situation could be like when the third wave comes. Despite the virus showing no signs of wearing off, Manipur has slowly started opening up and this is where the character of the people will be tested. Opening up not because the virus has been reined in but because of compelling factors such as the economy of the land and the people.
There are lessons that should be learnt from the first wave, particularly when the spread of the virus had started petering out. Even during that time The Sangai Express had cautioned the people not to go overboard with the easing of the restrictions, for the virus was still out there and the same word of caution is in line even now. The number of people pulled up daily for violating the SOPs laid down by the Government points to the fact that there are still some people out there who think nothing about violating the Covid Appropriate Behaviour. The figure given daily by the COVID-19 Common Control Room and which is carried religiously by all the Imphal based newspapers is an indication of how the virus continues to spread and infect at will. The new normal should be the slogan of everyone concerned and it should not be so hard to follow the dos and don’ts necessitated by the call of the new normal. Wearing a face mask that too correctly, maintaining physical or social distancing, avoiding large crowds, washing one’s hands thoroughly with soap and water or with a hand sanitiser should not be too difficult for anyone to fall in line with. So even as the State battles the second wave, it should also be ready to face the third wave.