Yes, sometimes getting a zero can be a feeling of pride, a moment of satisfaction and relief for Goa. The State has achieved a “zero” as far as Covid-19 positive cases are concerned. All the seven positive cases have recovered and at present Goa has zero number of active Covid-19 cases.
This means even though Goa is feeling safe it is not free from Covid-19. The battle continues with a small break of “relief”. Also it is surely a time to thank the health workers and other State machinery that worked really hard to fight this unknown ‘war’. Opposition leaders have also expressed their word of caution by saying that “Only testing can take us from safety to complete freedom. More preventive actions should be the only way of celebrations.”
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The journey to achieve this midway “relief” was not easy. Since the “Janta Curfew” on March 22 and extended by Goa for another three days was intervened by the Prime Minister Modi when he announced on March 24 that the entire country will remain under lockdown for 21 days. This period too has been extended by yet another two weeks which ends on May 3. With the drop in Covid-19 positive cases, even if Goa plans to relax the lockdown, the State at the moment cannot afford to open its borders and risk human transfers with the two affected states of Karnataka and Maharashtra. The rise in cases in neighbouring Belagavi is in fact a worry for Goa.
The fight has to continue till the entire nation is clean of this deadly virus which has affected over 23,50,000 people across the globe in 210 countries and has killed over 1,60,000 people. In India 16,365 positive cases have been detected so far of which, 521 succumbed to this killer virus which emerged from the city of Wuhan in China in the month of December last year. The worrisome part is that is there a “return of the dragon”, and China is facing a fresh spate of virus attacks as other places like Singapore and Hong Kong.
Even today there is no vaccine available on the planet and the only way to reduce this menacing Covid-19 is to remain under lockdown, maintain social distancing and practicing immaculate hygiene. This practice of social distancing, use of mask and personal hygiene is likely to continue even after the lockdown is lifted. One cannot take this threat lightly and there can be no specific date which can define the elimination of the threat from the virus.
Amid a three-week lockdown, which has been extended till May 3, the government will also lift restrictions to allow e-commerce companies, goods movement by roads, as well as restart port and air cargo operations, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement last week.
According to the statement from MHA, to mitigate hardship to the public, select additional activities have been allowed noting that States were responsible for ensuring that all safety and social distancing protocols were in place. The exemptions would not be applied to the dozens of virus containment zones, according to the order.
The worry for India is what happens to the state of migrant and daily wagers, many of them are away from their family members and are held up midway while trying to return home. Allowing industries in rural areas, including food processing, mines, packaging material, oil and gas exploration and refineries, to resume operations will provide livelihood for workers in rural and semi-urban areas.
More than three crore informal sector workers who depend on daily wages as low as barely Rs 300 per day have been without work for nearly three weeks since the restrictions were imposed. The government will also allow farming that employs about 800 million people directly or indirectly.
The world’s biggest lockdown may have cost the Indian economy Rs 7-8 lakh crore during the 21-day period close to three crore jobs are at risk during the April to September period. Even if the fight from Covid-19 diminishes, the fight to regain the sagging economy will have to be escalated many times over to save the livelihood of crores of Indians.
