From past few days an alarming spike has been reported in Covid-19 positive cases in Jammu and Kashmir. The number of infected people on daily basis has reached four digits and there seems no let up into the trend. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 1079, 1047 and 1251 positive cases were reported respectively taking total tally of three days to 3377. On Thursday and Saturday, the number of infected people in Jammu was reported more than those of in Kashmir division.
Health experts say that the large numbers are coming to fore due to aggressive testing and the more the testing, the more cases would be identified and once identified would be isolated and thus it will help to control the spread of the deadly virus. The experts could be right in their assessment but the biggest challenge is people response to the threat. The more the virus related infections are spreading, the more non-serious people are becoming in following the SOPs. Masks are vanishing from the faces of the people and the physical distance is becoming the least priority.
In these columns, we have regularly been pleading that in absence of any cure or vaccine, the people themselves are the ones who could scuttle the deadly march of Coronavirus. In absence of any scientific intervention at the moment, they (the people) are the ones who have the ability and capability to flatten the deadly curve, subject, they have the will to do so. As repeated umpteenth times, those who don’t follow the SOPs are not only putting their own lives to risk but those of their dear ones too. Not following the precautions is not suicidal it is an attempt to mass murder.
Cure and vaccine of Covid-19 would be available. It is just matter of time. But as per the experts, the virus will not vanish. It will stay and people will subsequently learn to live with it the way they are living alongside other viruses. But till the time the scientists succeed in finding an antidote to this deadly disease, the only antidote available with masses would be the precaution. Wearing face masks is to be made a permanent habit whenever one is outside his/her home. It has to become an essential part of our dress code now. Secondly, physical distance is the key to save one’s ownself and others around him/her. The religious leaders, particularly the Imams of Masjids could play a great role in curbing the spread of the disease if they make propagation of precautions against Covid-19 a permanent feature of their religious sermons.
