Dangerous defiance

With the coronavirus lockdown easing across the country after around two months on Monday, the public has erupted on roads and streets and in markets, flouting the SOPs needed to keep the contagion at bay. Unfortunately, what is being witnessed over the past two days does not inspire much hope as to the containment of the deadly virus. People have been thronging markets in large numbers and are throwing all cautions to the wind, as if the pandemic has ended and things are back to normal.

There is not much evidence of social distancing, refraining from handshake and even embracing friends and acquaintances and sticking to other precautionary measures. SOPs have been put in place to save both lives and livelihoods. But this fact seems to have been lost on the people. They would do well to remember that the pandemic is very much present among us, and the number of infections and fatalities is still on the rise. Those who are not following precautionary measures while visiting shopping centres are exposing both themselves and others to the deadly virus.

The government should be adopting a watch-and-wait policy, and it could roll back the relaxation if it produces dangerous consequences instead of helping traders and the common people. More than anyone else it will be people themselves to blame if the lockdown is tightened again.

People’s non-serious attitude with regard to taking precautionary measures to protect themselves from the coronavirus notwithstanding, once again we are witnessing the political divide at play after the relaxation was announced. The usual practice under democracy is that the government acts as performer and the opposition as criticiser, with both sides exercising restraint in their dealings with each other. However, the two sides seem to be wanting in this respect. Much of the criticism and counter-criticism is full of sound and fury quite oblivious of the thundering reality of the pandemic and its economic and other consequences. Both sides should refrain from politicising the pandemic. We all should try to see things with optimism. The glass should be seen as half full. After all, the future is not for us to see. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2020.

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