State’s Covid strategy failed
Government and people to be blamed for rise in Covid cases
Though just six months ago, March 2, the date on which the first Covid-19 case was discovered in Telangana state, appears to have slipped into the recesses of memory. It was on that day that a young man from Mahendra Hills area of the city was diagnosed coronavirus- positive.
Exactly six months later, on September 2, Telangana reported that 1.33 lakh people were infected with
Covid-19 in the state in this period. In these six months, the state also watched 856 people die of
Covid-19. In these six months, the state has witnessed, and the people have watched, as the disease spread rapidly across the state, with Hyderabad emerging as the biggest spot for infections.
While the state government says it had done everything it could to contain the disease and save lives, the fact remains that it did not. The High Court, responding to several petitions from citizens, repeatedly had to intervene to keep the government on track on Covid-19 management.
The state repeatedly messed up its data, deliberately or otherwise, in its daily Covid-19 bulletins, strengthening the public perception that the truth about the disease was being hidden. It continues to under-test at its own peril. Along the way, the state authorities also came under scrutiny of Governor, Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, a medical professional herself, who repeatedly pointed out lacunae in disease management in the state and urged the government to do much more.
These six months also saw several predictions and promises made by the government the end of Covid-19 is near fall by the wayside, beginning with the first one that the disease might well disappear in Telangana after April 7. The latest hope held out that disease will begin disappearing from Hyderabad by the end of August.
Also seen coming to naught were confident pronouncements that summer heat will put paid to the spread of the disease. The worst for the state, by far, was it quietly walking back on its claims that up to 90 per cent of infected people will not even know they contracted the disease. The admission a couple of days ago that only 69 per cent of infected people were asymptomatic did little to help the beleaguered state and its health administration apparatus.
The lessons, which Covid-19 is teaching Telangana as has been the case with the rest of India and the world, are harsh, to say the least.
The disease exposed how vulnerable the population is to a rapidly spreading and highly contagious disease; an abject failure in containment zone management; pathetic state of government medical care infrastructure even as the private medical sector ran rampant, extorting tens of lakhs of rupees from hapless patients and their families; and how a government, unwilling to face up to the reality instead sought to pursue image management.
People too have their share of the blame for Telangana being where it is today on the Covid-19 front. The callous refusal to adopt simple-to-follow personal safety measures; wearing of masks when out on the streets; maintaining physical distance from one another, reflects lack of understanding of the dangers to which they are exposing themselves, or, if infected and carrying the disease, others around them. But then, this could also be a result of the government’s botched up communications strategy which from day one, downplayed the dangers posed by the virus, both in the short and long terms. The lack of empathy with victims, seen in refusal to allow burials and cremations in several neighbourhoods shows the sickening attitude of people in a time of crisis and bereavement.