After a lull of more than 60 days New normal call still stands

It was down. It never was out. A line which The Sangai Express has been maintaining since a long time back, even before the second wave hit the people with such devastating impact and so it is that Covid which has been lying low for over two months seems to have stealthily made a sort of a come back, infecting 6 persons followed by yet another 4 new cases the next day. This was on June 29 (figure from June 28) and June 30 (figure from June 29). There is nothing disturbing about the number per se  but what is worrisome is the daily test positivity rate recorded in the two days mentioned above. The report datelined June 29 said that the daily test positivity rate had shot up to 7.5 percent, even though only 6 persons tested positive. This can be easily understood in the backdrop of the fact that the six cases were detected out of only 80 samples tested in the same period of time. What is even more worrying than the overall test positivity rate is the fact that  on the same day Imphal West recorded a daily positivity rate of 17.9 percent. Now this is disturbing. The next day, that is on June 30 which quoted figures from June 29, four more persons tested positive. Now four positive result may seem to be nothing to worry about but it is the positivity rate of 5.2 percent that should be taken note of as the four positive results were detected out of just 77 samples tested on June 29. Here again Imphal West continues to present a not so comfortable figure returning a daily positivity rate of 16.7 percent as 3 out of 18 samples tested returned positive results. Kangpokpi scored the dubious record of 100 percent positivity rate with one sample which was tested returning positive. It is still not yet clear whether the 10 persons who tested positive in the last 48 hours had any travel history, whether they had just returned home from other parts of the country or whether they have no travel history. The bulletin issued by the COVID-19 Common Control Room is quiet on these points. Maybe it is the low number of fresh infection, but it would help so much more if this report can now be given to the media, as it was done earlier. Or is it a case of fatigue as the pandemic has raged on since 2020 ? Either way it would greatly help for the people to know.
The call for the new normal still stands. The virus is still running amok in some places of India including Delhi, Maharashtra, Kerala and even in neighbouring Mizoram Covid continues to play havoc. Maybe it would help if the Government think tank can sit down and see if the SOPs which were in force earlier are again reimposed, so that the devil may care demeanour of the people may be reined in to a certain extent. Maybe it is time for the face mask to make a comeback, after a lull of more than two months. From 2019 across the world to 2022 and no one knows how the virus behaves or whether it will mutate further to continue to wreak havoc. The best step then would be for the people to voluntarily continue sticking to the SOPs which were enforced when the pandemic was at its peak. It will also help that much more if people line up to get their vaccine shots. More than a year down the line and it is not exactly encouraging to learn that only 53.13 percent of the people have taken the second shot of the vaccine and only 61.96 the first shot. This at a time when the country has already rolled out the booster shot or precautionary dose as understood in the country. Get vaccinated and yes the call for the new normal still stands.