Janta Curfew on 22nd March 2020

Janta Curfew on 22nd March 2020 : A timely clarion appeal from the Hon PM of India for the COVID combat 

Yesterday was an extraordinary day when it comes to our collective endeavour to fight the deadly Corona Virus, which has now become a global pandemic. The Honourable PM of India addressed the nation on the Coronavirus scare and appealed to fellow countrymen for their cooperation and support, including for a self imposed  people's curfew - जनता कर्फ़्यू, in combating the deadly virus, which India has until now managed to keep it, just about under check, relatively. Yesterday was also the day when the number of Corona deaths in Italy surpassed the deaths in China, the country of the origin of  this pandemic, from where this virus has spread globally and has been declared a pandemic by the WHO. It was also the day when not a single new incidents of the COVID 19 was reported from Wuhan - the epicentre of this dreaded virus - which after the initial blunder had quarantined itself from the rest of China and the world for containing the spread of the virus. There are lessons to be learnt from China and the city of Wuhan for handling of this pandemic, notwithstanding their utterly tragic and shoddy handling of the case when it all began, some time during end of November / early December 2019. At the time of writing this post the number of Coronavirus cases have now reached a staggering 2,55,201 and 10,456 deaths with India accounting for 223 cases and four deaths. While commending our leaders, untiring health workers and all other concerned countrymen for their extraordinary efforts in moderately containing the spread of this virus in India, we can’t be complacent that India is safe. We must not put our guard down and we must mandatorily prepare ourselves for a long drawn battle that is staring at us and continue our efforts to monitor and arrest the spread of this virus. We must constantly remind ourselves that it took nearly three months for the Coronavirus cases to reach a figure of 100,000 but then it took just 12 days for adding another 100,000 cases and the virulent tentacles of the virus have now spread to more than 175 countries and such has been the exponential rate at which this dreaded virus is spreading that if we slip now we will be driven on the Italian path, which for an high density populations like ours, will be a disaster that we can ill afford. 

There could be debates on what the social impact of the shut down, which has been imposed by several states and the central government including the जानता कर्फ़्यू that the Honourable PM has appealed, will be on a majority of our brethren, who work in the non formal sector and 

depend majorly on daily wage for feeding their family. But then we must appreciate that desperate times call for desperate actions and this is one such time, which warrants desperate actions including complete shut downs announced by different governments. Hopefully the Hon. FM under whose chairmanship the Hon PM has constituted a committee to formulate an economic package, which can mitigate the hardship of those whose livelihood is adversely affected, will be able to address this issue efficiently including taking lessons from the Government of Kerala. What is now of paramount importance is that we must all collectively strengthen the hands of our Honourable Prime Minister and heed to his appeal to impose the ‘janta curfew’ on ourselves for all of Sunday the 22nd March 2020, from 7 AM to 9 PM and be ever prepared for a long drawn battle against this menace in future as well, should the situation warrant. It is also a timely appeal by the PM to applaud and appreciate the unending Corona warriors who have put their own safety at stake to save us from this dreaded disease. This will need the support of every countrymen, primarily our leaders, irrespective of their political ideology, to ensure that the spread of the virus does not enter the next stage - third stage -  of community transmission.

We need to learn lesson from the failures of Italy and Iran and so also China to ensure that we as citizens do our best and support our leaders and all those heroes - the army of selfless medical doctors, the indefatigable health workers and innumerable others who are right on the ground fighting this battle risking their life to save our lives. While the virus in itself is novel and continues to create mayhem but then the Chinese have shown us the path that if there is a proper collective willingness and preparedness to combat this virus, this dreaded virus too can be contained. However if there is slackness in addressing this issue, with an ostrich like mentality, the results can be catastrophic as can be seen in the cases of Italy and Iran. The Wuhan province in China the epicentre of this virus is now limping back to normalcy and not one new case was reported yesterday, which gives us a ray of hope that the virus can be contained subject to the condition that we all are collectively responsible for it.

Peoples curfew’ in my opinion was disruptive at its best, converting the very dreaded word ‘curfew’ into a peoples movement, an attempt to prepare the nation for (God forbid) scarier days to come. The PM did well to dwell in to the past and remind the nation of its preparedness for the blackout during those war times, which in my opinion was a great example for preparing the nation, for possibly much harder times to come. This reminded me of our Sainik School training, during which our physical training teachers and those other tough no nonsense trainers, while draining us out of breath would often say ‘the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war’.  An apt example in present times. As we  inch towards that dreaded stage 3 of the COVID 19, the fear is palpable. Can we avoid the Italian or an Iranian experience? Will india get sucked into the dreaded corona tentacles of the virus and enter into that the exponential growth curve?  The Corona virus is unsparing of all those who don’t realise it’s dreadful effect or for those who are taking  it lightly. While the whole nation is praying that we flatten the Corona spread curve and never enter into that dreaded phase three - a result of the spread of virus from community - it is also time that we collectively listen to the clarion call given to us by the Hon PM, no matter how difficult the path is. We must remind ourselves that the first Corona case in Italy surfaced a few days after the first case was noticed in India and both of us were at about the same numbers (3) for quite some time and then things changed and Italy took that dreaded exponential path crossing from stage 2 to the next stage in quick time and the disastrous result is there for all to see. We must mandatorily avoid this path and for this we the citizens of this country must voluntarily support our PM. 

The novel Corona Virus, which was later named COVID 19, was first identified in Wuhan, China in a market selling live poultry, seafood and wild animals some where in end November or early December 2019. It has now spread globally and has impacted more than 180 countries accounting for more than 10,000 deaths and 2,50,000 people globally. Viruses, such as the Corona virus, are highly contagious and spread rapidly. The Corona virus is named so due to the spikes that protrude from their membranes, which resemble sun’s corona. It was initially called the novel Corona virus nCoV and it could infect both animals and people, and can cause illnesses of the respiratory tract, ranging from the common cold to severe conditions like the SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - which had earlier affected thousands of people around the world and killed nearly a thousand people during its 2003 outbreak. Most unfortunately the Chinese authorities had hidden the information of an outbreak of this new virus until Dr Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist by profession, talked about it and thus became the whistle blower against the virus. 

Li Wenliang, aged 34, raised concerns - on December 30 - about a possible spread of a new virus, in the city of Wuhan. Dr Li had posted a social message in a chat group for his fellow Doctors about his experience of attending to a series of patients with flu-like symptoms that resembled SARS at his hospital. He had  urged his group members (mostly doctors) to wear protective clothing, while at work, to protect themselves from a possible virus attack. As luck would have it Dr Li’s message went viral. He thus became the whistleblower in the case of reporting the virus epidemic, which later came to be known as the  novel Corona virus (nCoV) and subsequently as COVID19, which the world is now talking about. Until then the Chinese authorities had concealed the spread of this virus in Wuhan, from the public and also from the international community. Most unfortunately Dr Li succumbed to the very disease, on the 6th of February. His mortal remains may have been buried but his contributions in raising an alarm against the Corona virus will remain eternally etched in the annals of history.  

For most Indians the past few days have been unprecedented. We are seeing City shutdowns, schools, colleges, offices closed, exams postponed, stock market collapses, quarantines, empty streets and bazaars, mass panic buying, and tragic tales of human suffering are fast becoming a norm. And it seems that there is no end to this in the near future. It looks like the most aggressive campaigns of social distancing may help in arresting the spread of the virus in the next weeks or months but the virus and its fallout will almost certainly get much worse before it gets better.

The Indian society has been compelled to engage in what is termed as social distancing, a far fetched concept for us familial Indians, for whom societal bindings are inextricably linked to our very life. But then tough times demand tougher measures, which must also include such other measures as self quarantine and stay at home discipline. How long are people willing to take this path is a moot question.  A month? Two months? More? The longer one imagines society living with this virus, the more likely it appears people may be willing to submit to once-unthinkable ways of living, which is what is mandated and that is what the Honourable Prime Minister expects from all of us. Let us be inconvenienced for a cause which is millions times more detrimental than the inconvenience that some of the measures that we are now compelled to be a part of. Let us hope that the collective efforts of global community will help in combating the Corona virus menace and hopefully, sooner than later all things become normal. I am also certain that by then scientists, working over time all across the globe will have found a solution to combating this dreaded virus with vaccine and such other measures. Until then let us all be united and resolve to fight it out collectively.

जय हिन्द, and जय हिंद की नागरिक।