Fear of the unknown is powerful and Coronavirus still remains unfamiliar. SARS took about six months to stop, largely through public health measures. Being the second-most populous country in the world India has cause to worry but there’s no need to panic

A clear picture of the full ramifications of the extraordinary Coronavirus outbreak is yet to emerge. Till about two weeks ago the virus was just a news story but now, it has touched all our lives. Right from work, play, entertainment, the right to pray and to “what is for dinner today”, every aspect of the common man’s life has been affected. It has changed normal routines and many are now working from home. Students are on a forced holiday and irritable as they have largely been confined to home by schools and institutions of higher education shutting down. Even those staying in hostels have been told to pack up and go home. Worried parents have themselves  given up socialising, going to restaurants or the cinema. It has also resulted in an unprecedented focus on health and hygiene, not just in the public sphere but also in our private space. Authorities have issued numerous public health advisories and dos and don’ts to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. Right now, the situation seems to be spiralling out of control and as of now no end is in sight.

But this should not result in panic. It is indeed a good thing that the Government has declared it as a “national calamity” and the States and the Centre are working in tandem to check the spread of the dreaded virus. The number of confirmed cases in India has risen to 137, with three casualties, according to the Health Ministry’s data. As the number grows daily, many businesses have closed, there is mayhem on the stock market, hospitals are overflowing with patients and even the movie industry has postponed new film releases with movie halls being shut temporarily. It will certainly take a long time for the country to recover from the effect of this pandemic.

Even the gods have not been spared, say media reports. Apparently “fearing” that the deities, too, could be infected with the Coronavirus, the priests of a famous temple in Uttar Pradesh have covered them with masks and asked the devotees to clean their hands with sanitizers before touching the idols. Some like the Swaminarayan temple have been shut indefinitely. For the first time, the centuries old Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam has cancelled major services.

Interestingly, the Coronavirus has come as a blessing in disguise for the Narendra Modi Government  as it has pushed almost all other burning issues to the background. Politically important issues like the flailing economy, the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests, the Delhi riots and so on, have been put on the back-burner. Even in Parliament the debate on the anti-CAA protests was not as stormy as expected. The Modi Government got away with muted attacks, though the former Congress president Rahul Gandhi continues his tirade against the Centre on the sliding economy.

Coronavirus is taking a toll on economic activities around the world as the entire supply chain continues to be affected and major global events are either being cancelled or postponed. The impact on the Indian economy is going to be much worse now, though the Government is yet to come up with an assessment.

Indian economists are worried that the Coronavirus outbreak could drag growth in the current January-March quarter and the next financial. The Government has projected five per cent growth in the current financial year and the projected growth for the next fiscal, starting April 2020-21 has been pegged at six per cent to 6.5 per cent.

The manufacturing industry, the real estate sector, the aviation and hospitality industry, major sports events and almost every segment of economic activity has seen a downtrend. Airline tickets and hotel bookings are going at almost half price.The $46 billion global cruise industry is also watching the Coronavirus outbreak nervously. If the spread of the disease isn’t contained soon, it could even affect the advertising and marketing spends of brands.

The Reserve Bank of India Governor, Shaktikanta Das recently warned that the pharma and electronic manufacturing sectors might get impacted due to the virus and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is likely to go down further. He said that the Coronavirus outbreak appears to be worse than the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and this time China’s share in the world GDP and trade is much higher. Indian IT companies depend on Shanghai and Beijing and the big picture points to the fact that many existing projects might not be completed. India’s leading automakers — Mahindra, Tata Motors and Hero MotoCorp —  admit that the Coronavirus outbreak has hit production and supply of spare parts. The sector saw sales decline by 15 per cent in the April-January period.

Fear of the unknown is powerful and the virus still remains alien. SARS took about six months to stop, largely through public health measures. Being the second-most populous country in the world, India has cause to worry but there should be no panic.  Coronavirus is an evolving disease and we have no other option than to wait ad watch.

(The writer is a senior journalist)