No room for complacency

The second wave of the pandemic Covid-19 has started showing signs of a decline, given that every indicator, from daily case load to number of deaths to test positivity rate, shows a definite pattern. This, however, offers little reason to be complacent what with experts predicting the arrival of a third wave which could be more dangerous and lethal. It is important that the government pull up the socks to take on it, and a truthful and scientific assessment of the first and second waves is key to the successful resistance to the pandemic.

It is in this context that the reports of an upward revision of the death toll in Bihar must be viewed. As per the latest government figures, Bihar has lost 9,375 people to the pandemic against the earlier figure of 5,424. This indicates that the government’s figures have gone up by more than 72 per cent after the correction. The government’s justification is that it has taken time to collect data from private hospitals, other facilities, in home isolation and of those who died of postCovid complications. In a way, the government was admitting that it was formulating its policies and strategies on a wrong database.

The Bihar episode should be an eye-opener for all state governments and the Union government. The Union health ministry must ensure that every state follows uniform guidelines, formed by the Indian Council of Medical Research in the collecting data on infection and deaths. It must also ensure that the data from the rural and remote areas are also collected, collated and analysed scientifically so that it gives valuable inputs while preparing for the next wave. The right inputs based on reliable data should help the government plan the ways to augment healthcare infrastructure at places that would seem the next target of the virus.

It is important that the government pull up the socks to take on Covid, and a truthful and scientific assessment of the earlier waves is key to a successful resistance to pandemic.