Prioritise vaccination

The Covid-19 situation across the country is taking on a grim turn. We are on way to witness three lakh cases a day. This is taking a toll on the healthcare infrastructure which is on the verge of breaking down. It is difficult for infected people to find a bed in the hospitals.in Jammu and Kashmir too we are already past the peak of the infections recorded last year.

It is therefore time that the government pays more attention to vaccination with Srinagar which has been consistently recording the maximum number of cases being prioritised in the effort. The need is to set up more vaccination centres in the city to make it easier for people to receive jabs. It is also important to highlight the safety of vaccination through advertisements placed in newspapers and other media to address the vaccine hesitancy among a section of people.

Government has to also strictly implement the Standard Operating Procedure in public, which is something that is not being done. The wearing of mask has to be made mandatory and those violating the SOP in public should be taken to task. What the administration can do and which is eminently possible is to create more awareness about social distancing norms and take action against the people and the businessmen who violate it. It is time people are made responsible for their own health. We have to ensure that both life and livelihood are saved.

And to this end, the government will have to run an aggressive awareness campaign about the disease. It has to also work towards involvement of the community by charging village, locality elders, mosque managements etc to ensure people follow the safety precautions. Government should also enlist the youth for the purpose. This will go a long way to make a redeeming difference to the attitude of the people towards the contagion and in turn arresting its spread.

Government should resist the temptation to go for yet another lockdown. Considering its disastrous fallout on the economy, lockdown is a bad word. It is not possible for people to remain in a perpetual state of paralysis. This has already wrought havoc with the economy. More so, in Valley which has been under lockdown for the past twelve months. This has led to a loss of employment for thousands of people. The vital sectors of our economy like tourism, horticulture, handicrafts have been hit hard. So, resorting to lockdown is not an option