India is now paying the price for prematurely lowering it’s guard against the Covid-19 pandemic. Expecting the Omicron variant to be less virulent, many citizens bid good bye to Covid-protocols and as a result, the Omicron variant is now in the community transmission stage and there has been a steady rise in the number of fatalities. As per government records, there were more than 700 deaths due to the lethal virus on January 20. The highest number of fatalities were reported from Kerala with 341 deaths on that day. Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal also witnessed an alarming rise in the death toll. Statistics show that the third wave is as severe as the earlier two waves. The immediate need is to mitigate the spread of the disease as the pandemic is spreading all over the country. Many experts are favouring imposition of another round of strict lockdown in-order to bring the situation under control; while others are opposed to the idea citing its adverse impact on the economy. The Indian economy is yet to fully recover from the impact of the lockdown imposed two years ago, notwithstanding the fact that the Indian economy has made a remarkable turnaround since then and will touch the pre-pandemic growth rate soon. Moreover, it is indicative that the economy has not registered any real growth in these two turbulent years. If the situation had been normal during the said period, the Indian economy might have forged far ahead instead of contracting by nearly 25 per cent. In such a situation, we needn’t have worried about the economy reaching pre-pandemic levels again, rather, we would have been working towards surpassing current leading economies.
There are indications that authorities might impose selective restrictions instead of total lockdown to control the situation. But many see even such limited restrictions as being equally devastating for the economy. For example, the night curfew or the weekly curfew has strongly been denounced by the business community especially those from the hospitality and trading sectors, as such restrictions directly impact economic gains and losses. Many of those engaged in these sectors have either changed their profession or are struggling hard to manage two square meals a day. Furthermore, if the third wave has affected metro cities more significantly, it is because of the fact that due to the imposition of night curfew, people were gathered together in private venues during the festive season and large gatherings in small places allowed the virus to spread faster. Thus, instead of imposing restrictions the authorities should put further stress on educating the masses on the importance of vaccination and allay their fears by presenting irrefutable empirical data. And violators of Covid-safety norms should be dealt with firmly to stop the lethal virus from making a comeback.