“NOT TESTING ALONE. NOT CONTACT TRACING alone. Not quarantine alone. Not physical distancing alone. Do it all. Find, isolate, test and treat every case, to break the chains of transmission…. Do not let this fire burn.”
If this recent statement of World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus offers the best prescription for dealing with COVID-19 as of now, a State in India that has attracted everyone’s admiration with its quick and effective response to the spread of coronavirus is Kerala.
Right from early February, when three students of Wuhan University in China, then the centre of the outbreak, returned to their homes in the State and were promptly identified, tested and found to be the first known positive cases for coronavirus infection in India, Kerala increased its preparedness, readiness and response to the threat of the pandemic.
KERALA HEALTH MINISTER K.K. Shailaja promotes the use of sanitisers as part of the “Break the Chain” campaign launched by the State government.
It effectively utilised the most valuable resources at its disposal: time, the advance notice it got after the first trickle of people living abroad began to return in the wake of the pandemic threat; the well-known strengths of its refurbished healthcare system; and the out-of-the-blue yet hands-on experience it had gained in the past few years while handling two outbreaks of the deadly Nipah virus (“Managing Nipah”, Frontline, June 22, 2018).
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Bu hikaye FRONTLINE dergisinin April 10, 2020 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Sarpanchs as game changers
Odisha manages to keep COVID-19 well under control because of the strong participation of panchayati raj institutions and the community at the grass-roots level under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
New worries
Kerala’s measured approach to the pandemic and lockdown has yielded results. But it still has to grapple with their huge economic impact on its economy, which it feels the Centre’s special financial relief package does little to alleviate.
Capital's Malthusian moment
In a world that needs substantial reorienting of production and distribution, Indian capital is resorting to a militant form of moribund neoliberalism to overcome its current crisis. In this pursuit of profit, it is ready and willing to throw into mortal peril millions whom it adjudicates as not worth their means—an admixture of social Darwinism born of capital’s avarice and brutalism spawned by Hindutva. .
Waiting for Jabalpur moment
The Supreme Court’s role in ensuring executive accountability during the ongoing lockdown leaves much to be desired. Standing in shining contrast is the record of some High Courts.
An empty package
The Modi regime, which has been unable to control the COVID-19 infection, restore economic activity and provide relief to millions exposed to starvation, trains its sights on Indian democracy, making use of the panic generated by fear and a lockdown that forecloses paths of resistance.
Job Offers Withdrawn, Internships Now Unpaid
Engineering and business school graduates stare at a bleak future as job offers are withdrawn or revised, while delays in joining dates add to the climate of uncertainty.
In search of a road map
It is now increasingly clear that the government did not think through and provide for the consequences of the lockdown.
Clueless captain
As the nation longs for relief from the pandemic and the economic misery caused by an ill-planned lockdown, the government prefers symbolism over substance, exposing its lack of meaningful leadership.
RISING TREND
There are no signs of any let-up in the COVID case numbers well into the third phase of the lockdown even as issues of violation of physical distancing norms, mistreatment of front-line health workers, inadequate public health infrastructure and increasing distress among the poor come to the fore in most States, besides of course the low testing numbers and haphazard screening and isolation of suspect cases.
Dystopian pipe dream
The reluctance of the Narendra Modi regime to extend fiscal support to those in real need of help during a prolonged lockdown suggests that it is promoting further concentration of capital. Dire consequences await the economy and the polity.
