In a hurriedly-convened late night press conference on April 29, the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor’s advisor Mr Baseer A Khan troubled Kashmir journalists to explain how “efficiently” the Union Territory was “well equipped” to handle the ongoing fight against Covid19. Seeking to dispel what he called “several rumours,” Mr Khan asserted that “the Union Territory has the best facilities to tackle the pandemic. The administration has sufficient stocks of oxygen and Remedisivir to meet the demand. Also, J&K has placed an order of 1.25 crore vaccines. It has already been dispatched.” While the frantic SOS calls for Remedisvir and Oxygen continued to, and continue to, flood social media platforms quite often, the overall “fight” that he said was being “handled efficiently” now seems to have gone awry, in just a little over 15 days from the presser where big “assurances” were given.
Where Are Vaccines?
The vaccination drive against COVID19 in Jammu and Kashmir—as I write this piece—has come to a standstill. According to a report in The Hindu onMay16, the 10 districts in Kashmir have failed to administer doses to the eligible population on May 16 while “9,144 doses were administered in the Jammu region”.
The report, citing official data, said “Srinagar failed to administer any doses for the fourth consecutive day in the age bracket of 18 to 44” and the city “recorded a negligible 31 doses on May 16 to those above 45 and has so far been able to administer only 1,97,571 doses. Ironically, the pace in the city at 35.52% (above 45 years old) is far behind than most of the other districts in the Union Territory (UT).”
This is in stark contrast to such figures in Jammu region, which has been able to inoculate 99.34% (above 45 years old) of its eligible population. “At least 3,157 doses were administered on Sunday (May 16) in Jammu, which included 3,093 citizens above 45 years old,” the report said, adding that
Jammu has already administered 5,63,880 doses compared to Srinagar’s 1,97,571. Therefore the Jammu division, with 10 districts, has been able to administer doses to 85.66% population compared to the Kashmir division, with 10 districts, 61.15%.
While this notable mismatch has raised many eyebrows, there’s nobody—not even a governor’s advisor—to explain the reasons for this grotesque disparity. There’s nobody to explain where have “1.25 crore vaccines which have already been dispatched”, according to Mr Khan’s claim in the press conference, gone? And who will explain why scores of elderly people, as well as the young, have to return without vaccinations from the vaccine centers almost every day despite getting registered on the CoWIN portal and risking their lives by stepping outside again and again? Who will explain why no data of vaccinations of May 17 was shared on administration’s official Twitter handles, as it would otherwise do on a daily basis? Alongside, who will explain the reasons for “diversion” of five oxygen generation plans, as Hindustan Times reported on May 17, from Kashmir to Jammu which experts have warned “could be a riskier proposition.”
Unscientific Approach?
In one of its orders issued on 16 May 2021, the Jammu and Kashmir administration directed that “DCs will activate all the 20,000 Covid Care Centers (CCC) beds in districts for admitting patients with no or mild symptoms and cannot do home isolation”. The order further said that “CCCs will be opened closer to rural areas and the Health Department will work out feasibility of some of these CCC beds with oxygen support.” The order, on the face of it, looks unscientific in both essence and spirit. Instead of utilising all its human resource (which is already scarce) in districts for establishing 20,000 CCC beds, it would have been better to increase the oxygen bed capacity by 50 to 100 beds each in tertiary-care institutions as well as the district hospitals across Jammu and Kashmir. In absence of a dedicated oxygen support—especially the high flow that’s needed in serious patients—these CCCs would serve no purpose rather than acting as mere quarantine centers, which may not be even needed on such a large scale in view of the home isolation policy in vogue. Additionally, such an exercise would greatly overburden the already-overburdened frontline healthcare workers across health facilities in the UT, especially when—in the same order—the same DCs have been advised to “utilise all available staff for COVID related work such as mobilization for vaccination, testing, surveillance and information etc.” How much burden can the existing staff, which is very limited especially in peripheries, bear? Why this unscientific approach is being adopted is beyond one’s comprehension.
In another surprising move, the administration on May 2 constituted what it called a Crisis Management Group (CMG) to “monitor the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation and take preventive, control and mitigating measures.” The five-member CMG comprises Chief Secretary as Chairman, and Financial Commissioner (Finance), FC (Health), PS (Home) and PS (PWD) as its members while the Principal Secretary to LG will be a special invitee. While the mandate of the panel was well-defined—including meeting daily, and more often if necessary, to review the rapidly evolving COVID-19 in terms of cases, testing rates, positivity, mortality, recovery, hospital occupancy and other parameters—the panel surprisingly had none of the medical specialists as its member. Ideally, it ought to be an all-doctor panel—or a mix of doctor-bureaucrat team—to fulfill its mandate efficiently and ensure better outcomes on the ground since healthcare professionals have first-hand knowledge of all the issues and requirements in hospitals vis-à-vis COVID19.
Banking on just lockdowns?
On April 28, the Jammu and Kashmir administration imposed an 84-hour lockdown in 11 districts of the UT in the wake of a massive surge in COVID19 cases. Since then, the lockdown has been extended from time to time and continues to be in place as on date. On the face of it, the lockdown hasn’t been able to break the chain, if official Covid19 figures are anything to go by. On April 28, Jammu and Kashmir reported 30 deaths attributable to Covid19 alongside 3023 fresh positive cases. Seven days later, on May 4, the UT recorded 4650 cases and 37 deaths, and again seven days later on May 11, it recorded 65 daily deaths and 4352 fresh cases. On May 17, the figures were more or less similar, with the UT registering 4141 fresh cases and 59 deaths. Clearly the lockdown seems to have failed to break the chain—something that it was intended to do—though it might be argued to have restricted the infections from exploding beyond 5000 cases a day. Yet, that’s only an assumption, which draws us to raise one key question: are we banking solely on lockdowns? In absence of vaccinations on the ground—coupled with unscientific approach to handling the virus—are we only losing on all sides in our “fight” against Covid19? No State or UT can afford to squarely bank on lockdowns, which, ideally, were to be used as an interim measure to break the chain alongside augmenting infrastructure in hospitals to contain more Covid waves from impacting the people? Longer lockdowns are no solution to address this crisis. Here, people have a great role to play in helping the administration. One thing we all will have to get clearly. At some point in time, lockdown will have to go. The sooner it goes, the better it is. Because lockdown is no luxury, especially for those who live from hand to mouth. It is a problem, a big problem, eventually. And what if the Coronavirus stays here for longer than expected; does it mean the lockdown will continue for years together? The best recourse would be to learn to accept, whole-heartedly, the reality that Covid19 will continue to exist for a longer duration, during which we all will have to learn to live with it. And this learning has to be translated into practice every hour, every minute, so that life tomorrow returns to normal even if the pandemic continues. That alone seems to be the way out, if those who live from hand to mouth have to be saved from falling prey to hunger and starvation. They may continue to live for a month or two, or may be three, but not endlessly without a means of sustenance and survival. We will have to resolve, in the most serious way, to resume our lives in accordance with the Covid19 diktats: physical distancing, masking up and limiting our outings as much as possible. Because, lockdown cannot be an endless affair. It has to go. It must go!
Conclusion
All said and done. The UT administration still has a chance to make amends to ensure a result-oriented fight against Covid19. Without any delay, it must—to begin with:
- Constitute an all-doctor crisis management group with the same mandate, as enlisted in the all-bureaucratic crisis management group constituted on May 2—for better management and results on the ground.
- Urgently augment oxygen/ventilator bed capacity in existing hospitals (instead of going for the CCC mechanism) in J&K districts to meet the requirements in view of the continued surge in Covid19 cases
- Review its continued lockdown policy as caseload eases a bit to enable poor sections of the society, especially roadside vendors and transporters who have already borne the brunt of severe lockdowns, to earn a dignified livelihood.
- Ensure equitable/prompt vaccination across all J&K districts. And;
- Ensure complete transparency in all matters related to management of Covid19 to build public trust.