The commandments from WHO Stick to the dos and don’ts

Maintain social distancing-meaning stay at least 6 feet apart from the person next to you, avoid crowds, don’t go or do anything that brings you physically close to anyone, stop socialising; maintain physical hygiene-meaning wash one’s hand thoroughly and frequently at least for 20 seconds with soap and water; always wear a face mask when out in public spaces, with the addendum that a face mask is important even inside one’s own house, if anyone in the family returns positive results. These are the three commandments issued by the World Health Organisation and backed by the Indian Council of Medical Research and different State Governments across the country. This is where the co-operation of the people becomes paramount in breaking the chain of transmission. Again this is where questions ought to be raised on how faithfully is the public following the three commandments from the World Health Organisation. The absolute number of new positive cases has fortunately come down in the last couple of days, but this is small comfort when one takes a look at the extremelyhigh daily positivity rate in some districts across the State particularly in the hill districts. In the last two/three days, Chandel, Noney and Ukhrul have been logging extremely high daily positivity rate which reflects the spread of the virus and to be sure it wouldn’t be off target to say that Manipur entered the community transmission stage a long time back. This is the reason why the COVID-19 Common Control Room now no longer takes the trouble of spelling out how many of the infected persons had travel history or not. Again this could be another reason why the question of contact tracing now no longer arises and this observation is being made on the basis of first hand experience of how these two words have been reduced to just a line in the daily statement issued by the COVID-19 Common Control Room.
The virus has mutated as shown by records and statistics and the best way to avoid getting infected and not pass on the virus to others is to stick to the commandments laid down by the WHO. As a young, enterprising doctor put up on his Facebook post some time back, the vaccines may not work hundred percent against all the variants of the virus but what works against all these variants till date is the face mask. The interesting question is how much is the dictum to always wear the face mask being followed in some of the hill districts which have reported extremely high daily positivity rate in the last few days. The New Normal. This is not such a tough task to follow if only the people come to their senses and acknowledge that what has been advocated by the WHO is for the betterment of everyone. Wearing  a face mask, avoiding large crowds and maintaining social distancing should not be such a tough task to follow. The only hitch is why some people are just not ready to listen to good advices which is for their benefits ? In adhering to the laid down dos and don’ts one is not only keeping oneself safe but also ensuring that the others are not exposed to any adverse circumstances. Let it be clear that the virus is still out there and laxity on the part of anyone can only jeopardise  the lives of others. Next time when one steps out always wear the face mask in the correct manner and not don it as some sort of a fashion statement. COVID-19 is not a joke and it is apparent that it intends to stay here for some more time.