A national crisis

 On the face of it, the central government has made the right noises in responding to the first COVID wave but the second wave hit India for a sixer, when cases began spiralling upwards during the past two weeks. First the 1-lakh barrier was broken on April 5 and the cases continued to rise up and just ten days later India touched the 2-lakh barrier. This barrier has also been broken when India breached the 2- lakh barrier on April 16. Probably the gradual unlock has made people believe things are back to the pre-lockdown period. Even in mid-2020 during Lockdown, testing capabilities were also below the desired level. After one year of pandemic the country’s health system has undergone a massive qualitative and quantitative improvement. Probably a major increase in testing during pandemic has led to India doing better in this regard and reflected in record levels of fresh COVID cases in the second wave. The current record COVID cases in India has severely tested the entire health system. In many cities, there are simply not enough beds to admit COVID patients. In some hospitals, particularly in COVID hit cities, many patients with other serious problems have been forced discharged in order to accommodate COVID patients. Some states like Maharashtra have admitted that there was acute shortage of oxygen and have sending SoS to the Centre for the much cylinders. The shortages of either oxygen or vaccine has led to a trading of charges and counter-charges between the states and the Centre. So far in April, India has exported around 64 million doses shipped abroad between late January and March, according to data from the external affairs ministry. Facing soaring cases and overflowing hospitals after lockdown restrictions were eased, the Centre abruptly changed the rules to allow it to fast-track vaccine imports, having earlier rebuffed foreign drugmakers like Pfizer. India will now import Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine to cover as many as 125 million people. The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer, had vowed to deliver at least 2 billion COVID-19 shots to low and middle-income countries, with nearly half of that by the end of 2021. The central government exhibited a dual-approach on combating COVID by announcing a slew of measures on one hand and on the other hand, a selectiveness on religious functions. While certain activities on which careers, livelihoods and even a generation’s future depend, such as board exams and business operations, have been dealt a severe hand, the government’s leniency and selectiveness on religious and political events are, perhaps, fraught with more danger of the virus all around. For whatever reasons, the Centre conveniently overlooked the brazen defiance of Covid-appropriateness during massive political rallies held for the Assembly polls in the past couple of months, even after the second wave began rising alarmingly in March. A similar attitude is evident at the ongoing Maha Kumbh Mela in Hardwar. The signal for the mela remains green despite all signs of it becoming a coronavirus super-spreader as lakhs of devotees throng the holy city to take a dip in the Ganga, tossing Covid norms on the wayside. On the other hand, the Centre had refused to allow 20 devotees in the Nizamuddin Markaz during Ramzan. As India is battered by the second COVID wave, it would be appropriate if the inclination to exploit it for politics is desisted.