Current Affairs 2021: COVID-19 and India's response
By Dr C. Jayanthi
India, a country that is a vast subcontinent, had to deal with the Covid 19 pandemic like every other country in the world. Like every other country in the world, it made its mistakes, and then got its act together.
The COVID-19 pandemic that swept India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This virus is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The very first cases of COVID-19 in India were reported on January 30, 2020 in three towns of Kerala, among three Indian medical students who had returned from Wuhan in China, the epicentre of the pandemic.
This pandemic that created havoc worldwide, was spreading fast across the world, as no country had developed a vaccine. The whole world was totally unprepared. The only way to deal with it was considered to be lockdowns. This, of course, impeded free movement of people like in a curfew. It was considered the only way of dealing with the contagion. The World Health Organisation also approved of lockdowns as one of the major ways of containing and slowing down the spread of the pandemic. The other steps recommended were wearing masks and washing hands with soap. The virus spread through droplets emitted while a human speaks or coughs.
Lockdowns were announced in Kerala on March 23, 2020, and in the rest of the country on March 25, 2020. The nationwide lockdown created havoc in India as migrant labourers, who lost their jobs due to the lockdown, started walking home from the cities and towns, they were working in. Several lost their lives. Virtually, a month later after the migrants started walking home, the government organised special trains to transport people to their home town. Buses were also organised for the purpose. Some private citizens also helped in the mammoth task by organising transport across the country.
Daily cases of the peaked in mid-September 2020 with over 90,000 cases reported per day. This dropped to below 15,000 in January 2021. India began its vaccination programme on January 16, 2021 with the granting of emergency use to AstraZeneca vaccine (Covishield) and the indigenous Covaxin. Emergency use would mean that although enough vaccine clinical trials were not done on a cross-section of population, they were deemed safe to be administered to adult population in a country. In India, it meant those above 18 years of age were required to register on the CoWin platform of the government of India to receive a vaccine jab.
AstraZeneca is sold under the brand-name Covishield in India by Serum Institute of India, the private pharmaceutical company that was involved in the project of manufacturing the vaccine by Oxford University, UK.
On 30 April 2021, it became the first country to report over 400,000 new cases in a 24-hour period. There were shortages of vaccines, hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and other medical supplies in different parts of the country. It is an aggressive vaccine drive by the central government which was sharply criticised by the Supreme Court and the media by the way it handled the second wave, which has led to less than 20,000 cases daily cases present in the country.
However, the country has only given two shots to 20 per cent of its population of about 1.4 billion, according to various reports. By comparison, 51% have had a single dose. China, the only nation, on the other hand, to administer more vaccine doses than India, has fully inoculated some 1.05 billion, or 75 per cent of its citizens, as of late September, this year. India, therefore, has to catch up fast. Only a fully vaccinated population will lead to the eventual control and elimination of the deadly Covid 19 virus.
[Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are that of the author.]
About the Author:
Dr C. Jayanthi is an academician. She started her career as a writer and has 20 years of rich journalistic experience in senior editorial roles at leading media houses including The Times of India, The Pioneer, Gulf News, The Financial Express, and Deccan Chronicle.