View Articles

HAVANA—For the past three weeks, I have been working mornings in my local doctor’s office. My volunteer job is to go through the six drawers of around 1,500 patients attended by my doctor, Marta Gálvez. The neighbourhood is in Nuevo Vedado, near the Plaza of the Revolution, and stretches from La Rosa to Ermita to Tulipán to Boyeros and back around Boyeros to La Rosa, which is where Marta’s office is.

A bleak future stares at India’s economic revival. The country which has been deep in the slowdown before the outbreak of the coronavirus, will find it tough to come out of the economic crisis once the corona curve flattens and situation turns normal.

It is odd that the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has chosen the present moment to release a report calling on the Indian parliament to repeal the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. It is obvious that harried as the government and the people are by the pandemic, neither will take much notice of the international watchdog body’s observations, however effective they might have been a few months ago when the agitations against the CAA, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPA) were at their height.

Has the coronavirus pandemic altered Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s style of functioning? He knows that dealing with the pandemic is not only a test of his leadership but also if he succeeds, it will be his legacy, which will be remembered for long. Prime Minister has shown the face of a father figure to the public apologetic for the lockdown, a team spirit in dealing with the chief ministers, appreciating the media for their role, taking the leaders of the opposition into confidence before and after announcing difficult decisions – all these show a change in his style. Even his oratory shows a persuasive tone.

Cases are coming to light where people in need of urgent medical help are being turned back by hospitals that are overstretched with the COVID-19 pandemic. There is no mal-intent in this, but life is dear to all of us, in particular, those with serious ailments.

On Thursday, April 9, New Zealand witnessed decline in coronavirus cases for the fourth consecutive day. The island nation could accomplish this daunting task at a time when the entire world, especially the capitalist world has miserably failed to contain the pandemic and lost more than 80,000 citizens.

Although to date, fewer than 500 people of Afghanistan have been reportedly infected by the novel coronavirus and of them, 15 died, according to the Johns Hopkins University Covid-19 map which gets updated in real time, Afghanistan’s health minister Ferozuddin Feroz is right to fear the estimates suggesting most Afghans might contract the coronavirus by August-end. Speaking to the media in the last week of March, Dr Feroz quoted the World Health Organisation’s estimate that around 16 million people might get afflicted in varying degrees by the Covid-19 infection. He apprehends that some 17,000 people of Afghanistan might succumb to the invasion of the deadly virus which has killed over 100,000 people worldwide during the on-going pandemic.

What happens if a state government extends its lockdown and the nationwide lockdown ordered by the Centre is not done away with? The question disturbed minds when Odisha and Punjab extended their lockdowns without the Centre’s permission.

The novel Coronavirus infection has caused havoc around the globe sending thousands of people to death. Many countries imposed lockdown, some partial lockdown to contain the spread. India imposed countrywide lockdown on March 24 and extended it April 14. Prior to the imposition of lockdown, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi called for Janata (people’s) curfew on a Sunday on March 22. This was a sort of a mock drill preceding the main event. Just to encourage people in the fight against the novel virus, he urged people to stay at home and to blow conch shells, ring bells, ring plates from the balconies in the evening and to appreciate the work of healthcare workers. Similar incident was repeated on the evening of April 6 when people were told to switch off their light at nine in the evening for nine minutes and light diyas (lamps) or candles or mobile phone torch light. It did work to encourage people in the midst of complete shutdown.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created global panic. This is a relatively new strain of virus and we have little knowledge of its spread and the damage it can cause. We are not sure about how long will it continue. The pandemic has brought the global economy to a standstill. Even the highly developed countries are finding it hard to cope up and are trying to meet the minimum basic needs of their people. Whereas the developed world may be able to feed its population for months in this crisis, but for the developing world it is going to be a horrendous task.