The Centre, States and citizens can contain the virus only if they are on the same page and cooperate

The World Health Organisation recently said that India’s situation is a devastating reminder of what the Coronavirus can do, as the country suffers from a severe and more lethal second wave of the pandemic. India has overtaken the US with the highest number of infections. No doubt, the country is facing an unprecedented health emergency and the Centre and the State Governments are on their toes. When the first wave of COVID-19 hit the world last year, India was not adequately equipped — there was a shortage of beds in hospitals and medical equipment — to deal with the crisis. There were also no vaccines. However, despite all these, India managed to fight the first wave successfully but the second wave is more serious. We were not prepared to deal with it though this time we have more beds, medicines, infrastructure and vaccines to aid us in our fight. Even during the second wave, rural India is faring better with a lesser numbers of infections. Though the vaccination drive launched by the Government is going on, however, there exists a gap in the demand and supply of the vaccine owing to several reasons. Further, the Government has opened up vaccination for all those above 18 years of age starting from May 1, which might result in more vaccine shortage. However, all efforts are being made to increase the supply of jabs.

So, what went wrong? Complacency on our part is responsible for the second wave playing havoc. The authorities were so confident that the pandemic was gone, that Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan even announced that the COVID era was over, in March. Second, the Election Commission (EC) conducted Assembly elections to four States and a Union Territory — namely West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry — amid the pandemic.  Many experts opined that the election rallies were the super spreaders. Probably the EC was encouraged after seeing the successful conduct of Bihar polls last year, however, that was during the period when the cases were reducing significantly. The EC could have at least banned the election rallies. The political parties could have restrained themselves from addressing huge gatherings where people participated without masks and social distancing was thrown out of the window. Alas, by the time the EC banned the rallies, the damage had already been inflicted. The Madras High Court has said that the EC is singularly responsible for spreading Covid-19 and murder charges should probably be imposed on it for its “irresponsible” behaviour. The third mistake was that the authorities allowed millions of devotees to bathe in the Ganga in Haridwar during the Maha Kumbh Mela this month. The event was a super-spreader. Though wiser counsel prevailed on the Government which cut short the event, but by the time, it was already too late.

The fourth is the politicisation of COVID. The Centre has blamed States for not being alert while the latter claimed that the former didn’t heed their requests for more oxygen and vaccine doses.  No matter, who is at fault, the crisis only worsened. Last year, the States and the Centre had worked in tandem. The Prime Minister took the Chief Ministers on board and shared the burden. Finally, the public should get their share of the blame as people ignored the COVID regulations this year.  Swayed by rumours, many people were also apprehensive of taking the jab when the Government launched the vaccination drive in March. Now, when there is a huge demand, the supply is not adequate. The country is facing an unprecedented health emergency, the likes of which has never been witnessed. The Centre, States and the citizens must be on the same page and can contain the pandemic only if they all cooperate.  What is required is micro-containment and the responsibility lies with all stakeholders. The sooner they realise it, the better.

(The writer is a senior journalist. The views expressed are personal.)