Opening up places of worship is paradoxical

It’s a paradox that India is reopening its places of worship as part of Unlock 1.0 at a time when its hospitals are increasingly coming under pressure. The Union government allowed opening of religious places as part of the strategy to gradually re-open societal institutions, albeit with strict conditions, which were closed after India went into a national lockdown on March 25. Unfortunately, it is happening at a time when hospitals in some of the worst-affected cities are on the brink with patients swarming them. The pressure is so much that the Delhi government has proposed to restrict services in the hospitals to the residents of the city. The constitutional, legal and moral questions on the decision of the Delhi government can wait as the Lt Governor has overruled it. But the signal it sends out about the capital funded by the entire nation cannot wait. The prestigious Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad had to close down five of its key departments after several doctors tested positive for Covid-19;doctors in two other leading hospitals in the city — the Osmania Medial College and Gandhi Medical College — have also been infected. Hospitals in Mumbai have already been overwhelmed. Given India’s dismal performance in containing Coronavirus, the move in all likelihood will put the hospitals under further strain. Experts in India and abroad had long pointed out the inadequate healthcare infrastructure in the country and warned about the perilous situation if the number of infections exploded. They had also pointed out that countries with relatively better facilities such as Italy and Spain, and even the United States, found it tough to properly take care of its people.

A community spread of the virus, which many suspect has already happened, could result in the situation spinning out of control. The argument that the opening of religious places could increase the chance of community spread gets a boost by the latest guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the US. As per the CDC, the virus spreads easily between people and “is spreading very easily and sustainably between people.” The virus travels through the droplets a person produces when talking or coughing, according to the CDC. Another recent report pointed out that a choir practice in Washington state in March had become a super-spreader event when one infected person passed the virus on to 52 others. What we see today can easily be described as a product of adhocism that ruled the policy-making process of the Union government with regard to the containment of the pandemic. It must take a serious look at the developments and ponder if it is possible to reverse the decision to open up religious places, at least in the hotspot cities. It must also study the circumstances leading to Delhi government’s proposal and take urgent measures for a focused, comprehensive and immediate intervention in close coordination with the state governments to augment healthcare facilities.