The times are testing and warrant all of us to take a deep and close look at the way things are going on in India. For a country that’s replete with state-of-the-art healthcare facilities in its upmarket modern cities bustling with growth and development, how did we come to a state where perhaps it’s fair to say that had it not been for timely foreign aid, India might not have been able to put a strong step forward in the fight against COVID?
There’s not a single day where we do not hear about a bad news coming in from anywhere across the country. The hospitals are overloaded with patients, the families are grieving. Moreover, as a country, we have perhaps never seen a day, at least, in our recent history where there would be such a crisis across the burial grounds, that today seem over-capacitated with bodies lying in queues awaiting the last rites.
Things are not good even in the southern region of Tamil Nadu. As recently as a fortnight ago, there was news regarding the normal citizens of Chennai paying handsome sums of money to agents to stand in long queues for them in order to get the medicines, injections, as well as the oxygen concentrators.
Now, a prominent celebrity from Tamil Nadu has offered his piece of mind to the state and shared what he feels is a ‘must,’ if the region is to succeed in the fight again the ghastly virus.
Ravichandran Ashwin, one of the finest, if not the best off spinners that India has ever produced, told in no uncertain terms that Tamil Nadu must tread with absolute caution in its fightback against COVID 19.
R. Ashwin, as he’s family called took to Twitter and pleaded everyone in the state to take necessary precautions to fight the deadly Coronavirus.
Even in an otherwise prosperous state, there’s a shortage of medical aid, oxygen beds and other stuff connected with the COVID paraphernalia.
Referring to a tweet posted by noted journalist and former editor from the south, Sandhya Ravishankar, Ashwin clearly levelled a warning to this state of birth to pick up it socks in the COVID fightback.
Here’s the exact tweet by Ms. Ravishankar:
Let me tell you what the situation in Tamil Nadu is like right now. #Thread 1. Calls for ICU beds are skyrocketing. But there are no beds available. 2. Many pvt hospitals are running out of oxygen. They’re discharging patients on O2 because it’s just not available. (1/n)
3. Some pvt hospitals are just sending out patients because they don’t want deaths. 4. Many small hospitals have converted to Covid beds due to govt insistence. But now they have no assured O2 supply. 5. 108 Ambulances are queueing up in a big way outside Govt Hospitals.(2/n)
That being said, Ashwin quoted the journalist and requested everyone in Tamil Nadu to pay attention and mask up. He was also cautious about telling everyone to not spread scary items of news and to not make the common man needlessly afraid.
Also Read: How India’s Hinterland Has Now Come Into The Grip Of The Deadly Coronavirus!
But a line in particular that stood out in Ashwin’s message to all was this- “We need to be on a war footing defence agains the virus.”
That being said, why not take all the necessary precautions and act safe. It’s about time.