Dr. Pradeep Kumar Singh
The infectious corona pandemic has affected entire humanity. This disease appeared about 1-year ago and covered the entire world within 3-months. Different countries have been struggling with the disease in their own way. In India too, a 40-day lockdown was imposed from 25-March. But, as the disease is not expected to leave quickly, the conditions are being gradually relaxed, to let the system run.
The pandemic has affected almost every aspect of human life. It is said that, “the first happiness is to have a healthy body, and second happiness is to have sufficient money”. That is, both physical health and financial condition should be good for a happy life. But even with the continuous efforts of the government and administration in the pandemic period, both have got badly affected. In fact, the nature is almighty, and the human efforts have limitations. In this disaster, both physical health and economic condition had a very close relationship, if the effort is made to save one, the chances of getting the other affected increase. It is said, “if there is life, there is the world”. Also, “if wealth is lost, nothing is lost, but if health is lost, something is lost”. That is, the health should be given priority over money. Thus, most of the countries including India imposed lockdown to save physical health, which is showing a huge impact on the economy. But theories also have practical limits. Other activities of life cannot be suspended for a long time. Therefore, according to the Prime Minister’s time-tested principle “Jaan bhi, Jahan bhi”, the activities are being taken forward in a phased manner. Still, it will take time to restore normalcy in every sphere of life.
So far, more than 8-crore people have got infected with corona, of which about 18-lakh have died, and more than 5.7- crore have recovered. The average mortality in the world is about 3%. Death rate was more than 20% in the month of April, which is gradually decreasing. The death rate in this pandemic may have been low, but the situation remains appalling due to high infection rate and lack of treatment for the disease. The maximum number of daily cases of infection 7,36,117 was detected on 17-December, while the maximum number of deaths 13,783 occurred on 16-December. Global data suggest that the three months October-November-December indicate the third wave of the corona pandemic. This wave appears to be more contagious and deadly, and is still continuing. The United States ranks first in total infected cases (about 1.98 crore), and India in second place (1.02-crore). The US ranks first in pandemic deaths (around 3.43 lakh), and India in third place (about 1.48 lakh). Brazil faced more deaths than India (about 1.91 lakh). Brazil, Russia and France rank third, fourth and fifth respectively in total infected cases. While Brazil, Mexico and Italy are in the second, fourth and fifth position in terms of total deaths.
Among other affected countries, Andorra ranks first with 101,842 infected cases per million population, while Montenegro and Luxembourg are second and third, respectively. Similarly, San Marino ranks first with 1678 pandemic deaths per million population. The situation is similar for the Belgium. Slovenia, Bosnia and Italy rank third, fourth and fifth respectively. There have been approximately 1200 or more deaths per million in these three countries. The data is constantly changing. It is very interesting to see here that although all these countries have been badly affected by the pandemic, yet only a few of these could attract focus of media coverage. Probably because the total number of infected people and the deaths in these countries has been much less than that in the countries which have been in media focus, due to very small population of most of them. The highest population among these countries is in Italy, 6.04 crore. The population in other countries is very small, even the population of San Marino is just 34-thousand. Perhaps that’s why Italy remained in focus of media. Anyway, there is more focus on developed, rich and powerful countries, because they are more relevant in the world order.
Given the global scenario, the corona pandemic situation in India, with a population of about 138-crore, can be considered more or less controlled. The total number of infected people has reached about 1.02 crore so far, and about 1.48 lakh deaths have also been reported. It is a matter of satisfaction that about 98.07 lakh people have got recovered and the average death rate is less than 1.5%, which is half of the global death rate. The average death rate in April was more than 28%. In the last 8-9 months, various aspects of the corona pandemic have been discussed in the media. Also, there has been significant development in healthcare facilities in the country in this duration. Society has undoubtedly benefited from the advisories on pandemic prevention and health care. In the early stages pandemic, lack of specific knowledge about the symptoms and prevention of the disease, or lack of facilities in the healthcare system, could have also been the cause of high mortality.
Currently, the US is passing through the third wave of the Corona pandemic, while Brazil, Russia and France all suffer from the second wave. Although a second wave of the pandemic was observed in some parts of India also, the overall rate of spread is decreasing in the country. The peak of the pandemic wave has passed in September. The maximum daily number of infected people 97,859 was observed on 16-September, and the maximum daily deaths 1,283 was reported on 15-September during the peak days. However, the maximum daily deaths in the country 2,006 was reported on 16-June, when spread of the pandemic was on the rise.
The pandemic continues to wreak havoc. The country is still facing 20-25 thousand new infected cases and 200-400 deaths daily. Despite precautions, there are reports of infection among people working in different areas. The recent news of a relatively more infectious new strain B1.1.7 of the corona virus in Britain is frightening. It takes time to understand the impact of new strains, and by then the infection spreads in society. Vaccination has begun in a few countries. Some side effects of the vaccination have also come to light. Usefulness of the vaccine on the new strain of corona is yet to be explored. The vaccination of 138-crore population with very limited trained manpower (in proportion to population) in the country is extremely challenging, and cannot be possible without public support. Overall uncertainty continues. Precaution is the only protection, that is, maintaining and enhancing the body’s immunity along with “2-yard distance and mask” is very important.
(The author is Former Dean (Research & Consultancy) Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering & Technology, Longowal)
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