Is it rearing its head again? Fears are that it is. And that is something very serious. For past some days the virus is again heavily knocking at our doors.
The daily statistics that are dished out by the concerned authorities tell a tale that must wake us up from our comfort zones. The numbers are rising, and some deaths have also been reported.
This is after a long gap of months when we thought the problem was finally over. Even the talk of a 3rd wave had now become a kind of a mild joke. We had moved back to our ‘normal’ ways of gathering and getting together.
No masks, no social distancing, no covid appropriate behaviour; everything was now missing in our societal interactions. And here we are now. The statistics for lat few days, especially for the district Srinagar, show a steady, yet definite, upward trend.
The old pictures of sealing particular areas, after declaring them Red Zones, are back. Just in a few days the number of such zones has risen to an alarming figure. What does all this convey. It means we are inviting trouble for ourselves.
It means we are asking for another lockdown. It means we are again putting our daily economic effort to peril. It means we are again asking for a crisis that we have suffered for more than a year and are hardly out of it. It is time that we take heed and start observing caution. It is still in the beginning and if we get serious about it right now, we can arrest the trend before it goes out of hand.
Back to basics, we need to wear a mask once we move out. We need to be careful when part of a gathering. We need to minimise our interaction to only needed. On part of the government there is need to up the sensitisation drive. And yes, the decision to open up spaces that have barely any economic reason, need to be revived.
As we are coming closer to finishing the academic sessions, and the time to conduct annual exams is nearing, the decision to ask students to join colleges is wanting in reason. It was rather better to hold weakly counselling and orientation sessions meant to prepare our students for exams up ahead.