Its quite disturbing to know that people in Devbhoomi Himachal Pradesh are openly flouting the “social distancing” during relaxation in curfew. This is happening at many places in the sta ite. Apparently, the concerned authorities haven’t bothered to enforce the Prime Minister Modi’s dictate. PM has been insisting on enforcing social distancing strictly. Newspapers and local news channels have been presenting a rosy picture of the state over containment of coronavirus outbreak.
I am afraid, there might be an temporary lull but if people keep on contacting like this in the state, possibility of outbreak can’t be ruled out. The threat of the Corona outbreak is strengthener further as Himachal Pradesh has very limited testing facilities . The samples of suspected Covid-19 patients can be tested just at two medical colleges — Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Shimla, and Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College and Hospital, Tanda in Kangra. Private laboratories are not be allowed to test.
So being my home state and having deep concerned for my relatives and friends, I feel state government need to be more cautious and strictly enforce ” social distancing”. Relaxation in curfew should be used in dire necessity and all District, Sub-Divisional, Tehsil level officials with police need to be posted to enforce the social distancing.
Under lock down, you can be booked even if you visit your neighbor. Himachal Pradesh can learn from South Korea, a country of 50 million . It has emerged as model for slowing down the outbreak of coronaviruus. From 909 cases at its peak on 29 February, it has been able to bring down to 74 new cases now. As of 24 March 2020, South Korea had about 9,037 cases with 120 deaths and over 348,582 people having been tested. It has a case fatality rate of 1.33%, much lower than the WHO’s global case fatality rate of 4.34%.
This was made possible by introducing what was considered one of the largest and best-organised programs in the world- extensive screening the population for the virus, and isolate infected people and quarantine those who contacted them. These measures were successful in limiting the spread of the outbreak despite not using the drastic measure of quarantining entire cities.
Himachal also need extensive screening of its people to check the spread of coronavirus. Fortunately, this hill state has better medical services network. With just 7 million population, state can do what South Korea is doing. Just strong will power is needed.
