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There is something grievously wrong with Delhi. Whilst the number of Covid-19 infected persons are coming down all over the country, the national capital is witnessing the third wave of this lethal virus. More than seven thousand people are becoming infected daily. Hospitals and make-shift Covid centres are full. Clearly, Delhi’s health facilities have been discovered inadequate to combat the menace. Moreover, the Covid warriors i.e. the doctors and nursing staff haven’t received their salaries for the last couple of months and are threatening to go on strike. If that happens, health facilities in Delhi will come to a standstill.
Who is to blame for such a scenario? Unlike earlier waves, quite interestingly this time blame game is not on between various agencies responsible for maintaining public health. Instead, all agencies have banded together to blame the onset of winter as the main reason for the recent spurt of Covid cases. The agencies have cited various reasons to establish their claims. According to them, as viruses become more active when the temperature is low, in winter months Delhi will see a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases. Low temperature coupled with pollution may make Delhi an even more hazardous place for people suffering from respiratory diseases, agencies warned. The agencies have also listed the steps taken by them to keep the situation under control.
But all these are simple knee-jerk reactions. As a matter of fact, no real effort has been made to prevent such a situation. It was common knowledge since the outbreak of the pandemic that the battle against this lethal virus would become harder during winter months. So, there was enough time to equip Delhi to save the people from fresh onslaught of this virus. But no agencies have shown any inclination to save Delhi from Covid-19. They were busy taking credit for preventing the situation from further deterioration. Additionally, no steps were taken to check pollution which is equally as lethal as corona, ignoring the warnings from health experts. It may be argued that hefty fines have been proposed against the violators of pollution norms. At the same time, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed a ban on fire cracker sale till November 30.
But all these measures are cosmetic in nature. No agency in Delhi is capable of identifying the violators of pollution norms, forget about punishing them. To curb pollution in Delhi, the most important step will be to restrict vehicular movement in the national capital. But no such effort has been made. Secondly, after the initial spurt of Covid-19, the authorities didn’t give much effort to boosting health facilities. Thirdly, there is a question mark over the success of the fire cracker ban. History shows that no such efforts have ever been successful without the participation of people. But before announcing the ban, people of Delhi were kept in the dark. So, not much is expected from the steps announced so far to combat the third wave of Covid-19, as the steps have been taken without proper homework. Only time will tell the true impacts that the people living in the capital will face.