Covid-19 Coexisting With Contagion

In the last more than a year, the people picked enough knowledge about the virulent and vile virus that it helped them to live in peace with the invisible despite mounting costs, reports Syed Samreen

- Syed Samreen

From deserted roads to busy marketplaces, from using hand sanitisers religiously to using them once a while, from washing hands an infinite number of times to only washing them when needed, from changing masks more often to reusing them, finally, Kashmir has started to co-exist with the virus and its mutants that cause Covid-19.

Whenever a positive case was confirmed in a locality, squads from the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) used to swarm in and sanitize not just the house of the infected individual but the whole locality not to forget the roads.

When the first Covid-19 case was confirmed on March 18, 2020, Kashmir was horrified. By 5 pm, the twin roads of Residency Road and M A Road were deserted. It was a real headache for patients to hide their identities because the stigma was in vogue and had almost an official sanction.

SURGING TOLL

Even though the death toll has crossed 3100, authorities are scared to somehow ensure the curve flattens; the larger society is trying to co-exist and live in peace with the virus that has wrought destruction in places like Uttar Pradesh. The larger civil society, however, continues to cooperate with the established systems to reduce the number of infections and the overall mortality of the disease.

But how did this change take place within a year?

There are varied reasons. The particular virus or its mutations might be the only virus that was studied and investigated so quickly that people picked the knowledge on daily basis. A quick understanding of the modes of transmission is key to this change.