Covid rise in hot summer has only raised temperature in Valley. There’s fear that the “invisible enemy” might enforce another hostage phase and leave people anxious and agonized in their homes.
What’s escalating this sense is the partisan prognosis and process making the entire health crisis prone to stupidity and slips.
The bug is becoming brutal when the incoming footfall is breaking all the previous records in Kashmir making conscious citizenry worried about the looming spike. They wonder about the absence of the reasonable regulations when the visitor headcount is staggering.
That Kashmir hosted more tourists than its population in last six months is beyond a buck boost. It’s a clear case of new normal driven by delirium.
Each arrival needs proper planning and parameter to pass as a nonthreatening tripper when pandemic is making willful appearance and disappearance in our lives.
While inspecting internal factors, the external situation should be synchronized with the equal vehemence.
Delusional doctrine has a cost and that cost at times rears its ugly head in the form of viral wave.
Kashmir got a wakeup call when director health gave cautionary bytes about protocol. He made it certain that the valley is registering spike in Covid cases. And in response to this looming health crisis, the old measure of masking mountains was set in motion at certain corridors.
But while the mandatory masks won’t remain confined to Bandipora and Ganderbal in coming days, the efforts to counter the Covid resurgence should sync with the sentimentalities of the 80-lakh strong population.
That’s to say these Covid measures should exhibit new smart ways of living rather than enforce the same old routine.
Sadly, the summertime troubles have always haunted the valley and the Covid situation being manifest of the same seasonal jinx demands more mature management.
Truth remains that the battered community is still trying to feel normalcy since the summer of 2019.
While the back-to-back lockdowns and lack of stimulus packages have created cost-cutting culture in Kashmir—barring some exceptions—the official Covid counter-mechanism mostly remains confined to the campus management of the valley.
Enforcing curbs in local institutes and economic units won’t alone serve the purpose if the festive footfall is already making mountains vulnerable.
The admin needs to rise above its reflex response and think beyond the ‘campus-management’ diagnosis of the Covid situation. The education in the valley needs breather as well as boost following its recurrent situational denting.
At the moment, the officialdom should manage the incoming influx through proper testing. Smart and pro-people regulations of the other activities should follow.
If prevention is better than cure, then the watchword should be applied to everything that makes the situation vulnerable in the valley.
Reducing the roll in educational institutions isn’t alone going to curb this pandemic phase. The selective approach clearly defies the scientific treatment of the viral malady. The approach has to be meticulous and thorough in letter and spirit.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, but declaring certain activities as positive and the rest as the business usual only pricks the so-called counter-mechanism balloon.
Admin can certainly do better to counter this Covid phase.