Hyderabad: Cited as 'once-in-a-century pathogen' we have been worried about by Bill Gates, the COVID-19 is destroying the social, and economic sectors of the society by infecting more than 1,00,000 people worldwide.
Though the World Health Organization believes that the spread of Coronavirus can be controlled, eighty countries including India are already in serious trouble. Though the virus spread has been contained in its epicenter China, the death toll is high in countries like Iran, Italy, South Korea and Japan.
The deadly virus has been transmitted from Italy to 14 other countries through 24 infected cases and to 11 countries from Iran through 97 cases. Out of the 30 confirmed cases in India, half were from Italian tourists.
The government’s war foot basis arrangements to detect illnesses in all states through Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP), and to closely monitor the health of foreign and domestic travellers arriving at 21 airports and 65 ports, are right in adapting to the ongoing crisis.
The Telangana High Court had given clear directives in the wake of a warning by the Director of the Institute of Preventive Medicine that Coronavirus is likely to be spread from slum areas.
The High Court proposed to provide adequate water supply and establish special wards near the slums. It asked the government to distribute sanitizers and face masks to the slum dwellers in order to contain the spread of the virus through coughing and sneezing.
The population density per square kilometer is 148 in China, and 420 in India. If the COVID-19 spreads in Indian slums with greater population density, the consequences are unimaginable.
In the war against Corona, every citizen must become a soldier to defend himself and the nation.
Though the WHO has refused to declare COVID-19 as Pandemic, China’s President Xi Jinping’s comment that the virus is yet to reach its full potential is shocking.
Out of the 80,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in ground zero China, more than 3,000 have died and over 6,000 are still battling the deadly disease. There are reports that the COVID-19 was manufactured in the local laboratories of China.
Also Read: Haryana govt declares COVID-19 an epidemic
After China, the highest number of casualties are recorded in Italy (148), Iran (107) and South Korea (35). The reason behind Corona scare even among developed nations like the US is simple.
While there are seven variants of the human-infected Coronavirus, four of them are benign. The novel Coronavirus is different from its three variants like MERS and SARS, and no cure is found yet to treat the infection.
Studies have shown that up to 80 per cent of the Corona cases were mild, 18 per cent were severe, and the rest 2 per cent were fatal.
Hundred years ago, the Spanish Flu had infected 40 per cent of the world population and killed 5 crore people. The Asian Flu of 1957 killed 20 lakh people. The 1968 Hong Kong Flu killed 33,000 people.
In the face of these experiences, the fear that COVID-19 is creating a public health crisis is sending panic waves across several nations.
Experts are worried how India, with its substandard hygiene and near absent public health policy, will battle the Corona threat. China, which failed to assess the severity of the first virus outbreak in December, later took extensive measures to control the spread.
In just 9 days, the Chinese government had built a 1000-bed hospital with round the clock medical supervision. In the fight with the pandemic, nearly 200 medical professionals in China have lost their lives. The alarming rise of recovered patients contracting the disease for the second time has called for a combined battle against COVID-19.
The Kerala government’s quick measures in isolating the 3 overseas travellers have prevented further spread in the state.
Kerala’s efforts to empower the immigration officials, police, panchayats, health workers and doctors as the first line of defence has resulted in positive results. The Kerala government went a step further and started creating awareness campaigns among its people.
The government did instant measures keeping in view the earlier Nipah outbreak. The robustness of Kerala’s primary healthcare centres has benefited the situation.
Governments should work to increase public consciousness, eliminate rumours, and reverse the virus threat by implementing a strict personal safety regime.
Also Read: COVID-19 Updates: Impact on Indian tourism could run into thousands of crores of rupees
