Sasi Nair
Mumbai, April 26
Ashok took leave from his office after convincing his boss of the need to travel as it was an urgent matter. He had to pack his bags and leave Bombay to reach his hometown in Kerala as his brother was admitted in serious condition in a local hospital with no one else to attend to his immediate needs.
Lakshmi’s parents who live in Chandigarh had been searching for a groom since the last 5 years and they finally got one well to do boy working in a government job. His only demand was let the girl come down to Delhi and meet me, I am not asking for any dowry or anything as I have a stable job and can look after a family. Lakshmi has to travel from Bangalore to Delhi and come back to Bangalore again for work. She is not sure if things would work but has to try nevertheless as her age is also increasing and she may not find a good match later on.
Well, the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted normal lives of common man to the extent that people are not willing to travel identifying the risks associated in it and considering the second wave and the nature of the virus, everything looks risky. State governments have now made it mandatory for one to undergo the Covid19 -RT-PCR Test upon entering the state border.
The reports aren’t immediately uploaded on the website of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), whether it is positive or negative and so going outside state boundaries in short notice has become almost impossible.
In welcoming news, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court headed by Justices ZA Haq and MA Borkar while examining a PIL ruled that Covid test results must be given to patients immediately through WhatsApp without waiting for them to be uploaded on ICMR website.
The court ruled that authorities must enforce this ruling and if any laboratories do not comply with these orders then action should be taken against them for violating this rule. People were facing immense difficulties as hospitals and laboratories were adamant in getting the test results uploaded on the website of ICMR and then give access to the patients who underwent the tests. In the process there was a delay of 4-5 days which is simply unnecessary.
States such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Delhi, etc. have been reporting high Covid cases over the last few days with state governments mulling on lockdowns. Dearth of hospital beds, oxygen masks and ventilators is yet another challenge for the government and the general public. Although vaccination drive has begun for those aged 45 and above, there is a lot which needs to be done to plug the gaps in the system.
Countries such as UK have already experienced the second strain of the virus which India is presently facing. Common man needs to be more careful than ever before in terms of his health and safety and a large section of the public believes that the second wave of Covid will also pass.
