COVID-19:STARK

The dismally fast progression of the Coronavirus pandemic since January has revealed to us that our institutions, much less than the people they govern, are ill-equipped and ill-informed in handling a global crisis on the scale of a pandemic and change is

Iam writing this from lockdown India is at the cusp of Coronavirus’ third and most deadly stage of community transmission and governments have now called out to citizens to stop all economic activities and isolate themselves. This is clearly crucial. Never before at least not in my living memory has something this small become so globally life-threatening and so out of control, so quickly.

It was only in January that we got the first real news about the novel virus, which has jumped from animals to humans, and was claiming lives in China. We saw images of forced incarceration; millions of businesses and homes were shut down; hospitals were built overnight; and, it would have seemed that victory was on hand. It was a blip in the global economy and China would bounce back. Business was as usual.

But then, so quickly, the virus moved to make new homes: Italy, where things have completely gone out of control and Iran, where so little is known even today about the sheer extent of toll that this disease has extracted. Now the spread is practically universal; most of the world is in a lockdown mode. It is completely unbelievable.

As I write this, there are 2,902 Coronavirus cases, with 68 deaths in India. This pales into insignificance, when you consider that Italy has over

1,15,000 cases; or that New York

City alone has over 57,159 confirmed cases. It is said the cases in India do not represent the true numbers, because testing is limited. But this is where the real question arises.

What should countries like India do, with limited testing facilities and even more

limited pub

lic health infrastructures? All evidence now is pointing to the fact that as the pandemic reaches the community spread stage, the death count will increase because these countries cannot provide intensive care that is needed.

That’s why the choice for Indians is stark we cannot afford community transmission; we have to contain and to prevent further spread. Already, in my view, we have delayed the inevitable closure and not been strong enough on enforcing the rules of quarantine. And, yes, we have to increase our testing capacities, but it is also clear that we will never be able to test adequately once it spreads.

So, testing has to be done to identify and isolate. But this is where we are weak. We have seen how people the literate rich because