Change is the one enduring factor that makes it all count and marks all the difference. Without change, we are all stagnant and perhaps even immobile. Without change, we are practically nothing. When the global pandemic took a turn for the worse, bringing the planet to a state of shutdown, back in 2020, it was change we all were utterly unprepared for and unable to adjust to. And now, especially here in India, as the COVID 19 rates are falling, but not before several cities and regions across the country being strung to a state of a lockdown, change has arrived again.
And this time, it’s one for the better. After imposing a state-wise lockdown- not an absolute national lockdown- slowly and steadily the cities in India are reopening up. Though, this is largely down to a very important point in statistic.
The current COVID cases in India measure at a two-month low. If that’s not a piece of good news, then one wonders, just what is?
Perhaps, it’s only true to admit and in no uncertain terms that the time we’ve observed in the country from the onset of April was that of abject darkness. Due to a sharp and deadly surge in COVID cases, the hospitals were overcrowded with patients. Ditto for funeral grounds, where quite like humans standing in a ration shop for endless queues, bodies awaited their final sojourn.
A piece of news from the national capital was quite disenchanting where a funeral ground meant for dogs and cats was, in times of dearth of burial grounds, was being used for humans. Shocker! Gut-wrenchingly sad.
But the India you witness today, where make no mistake, the COVID 19 cases still exist, isn’t the country that is utterly gasping for breath. It’s a country where things have improved and the commoner can finally experience- after months of waiting- a slice of normal life.
Reuters, in a report on the reopening of Indian cities during COVID 19 had the following observations to note:
The 100,636 new infections of the past 24 hours were the lowest in the world’s second most populous nation since April 6, and well off last month’s peaks of more than 400,000, allowing authorities to re-open parts of the economy.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal had the following point to emphasise- and rightly so:
“We have to save ourselves from infection but also bring the economy back on track.”
Where India stands at the moment, then there clearly are two challenges in its path. Firstly, that of ensuring that the majority of its humungous population sis safe and sound. And next, that there are enough jobs out there.
Something that doesn’t require cross-questioning with any modicum of effort is that one of the somber after effects of COVID 19 lockdown is the loss of job for many, wherein, in plenty of cases, the sole bread-earner has lost his job or means of vocation.
Imagine the plight of countless Indian families while we continue to lead comfortable lives, despite the COVID onslaught, from our not-so-cramped up four-walled existence?
Also Read: Mumbai Restaurants And Salons To Reopen- With An Occupancy Of 50 Per Cent!
Here’s taking stock once again of just how bad things were for the second-largest population in the world:
India added 2,427 deaths overnight for a toll of 349,186, the health ministry said, down from more than 4,000 each day at the height of the crisis, while its tally of infections now stands at 28.9 million.