As the government has decided to ease out some restrictions imposed in the wake of lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus, the coming days are going to be more challenging for the people. People have to understand and appreciate that the reality of our times is that the Covid-19 may not go away and people will have to live with it. Without a vaccine, it could take years for the population to build up sufficient levels of immunity to it and this virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities. It may be mentioned here that other previously novel diseases such as HIV have never disappeared, but effective treatments have been developed to allow people to live with the disease. Let us hope that an effective vaccine will be developed that would help contain the deadly virus.
At the moment, the infection can’t be treated so to defeat its spread is the only thing that can help save lives. However, stopping the virus even without medical interventions was possible and the trajectory of this outbreak is in the hands of the people. Once it is established that coronavirus is here to stay, the people will have to seriously change their life styles. Social distancing is to be made a permanent feature of human life. Wearing masks is to become a necessity and avoiding crowds is what everyone has to strive for. Covid-19 has created a new world with new norms and to save our lives and lives of others, we need to follow those norms strictly. This goes without saying that governments in the world cannot go ahead with unrelenting lockdowns as these have resulted into suffering of millions of people who have lost their jobs and striving to feed their families and themselves. So the lockdowns are to be ended.
The easing of restrictions in India should be viewed in this backdrop. Now is the time that the bigger challenge will look people right in the eye. Right now, good or bad, everything is attributed to the respective governments but once the lockdowns are over and economic activities are resumed, it would be exclusively every individual’s responsibility to fight and help hamper the march and spread of coronavirus. People have to gear up to live in this new world where one more virus has been added to already existing infections. This new virus is more demanding and therefore people will have to follow the WHO guidelines in letter and spirit. The easing of restrictions should not be seen as ‘free for all.’ It should, in fact, be treated as the real challenge where people would be solely responsible for their lives and lives of others. Restrictions or no restrictions, the precautions need to be followed by one and all to save the humanity and the humans.
