By Varun Bhardwaj :
Delhi, April 29, 2020: The screening of passengers in India from affected countries started from 17th January 2020. The W H O declared Covid-19 a public health emergency of international concern on 31st January 2020. Is it not surprising that in spite of the spread of Covid-19 to almost 90 countries at the end of the 1st week of March 2020 the W H O declared a public health international emergency on 31st March 2020?
The Markaz conglomeration at Nizammudin started from 13 March 2020 i.e. it started well after 17th January 2020 when India started screening passengers from abroad and there were international passengers also for attending MARKAZ. Now the question arises why the Markaz Passengers not screened at the airport? How they stayed back after the conglomeration was over on 20th March 2020? How the visas were granted in spite of the alert in the countries all over the world?
In spite of so many questions remain to be answered India is at a better place then many developed countries and had India taken preventive steps a bit early and timely to detect, quarantine suspected cases at home and isolating contacts and suspected cases in isolation at identified hospitals and timely screening of international passengers, that would have put India in a much better position and contained the spread of the virus to the lowest level citing an example to the countries of the world. India is the 16th worst-hit country in the World in terms of total cases. The efforts of the Govt. of India certainly needs applause & appreciation for their efforts to do the needful timely. The State Govt. under the Federal structure in spite of different political affiliations, has also fallen in line with the Central Government.
The first case was reported on 1st January 2020 after the virus was first reported in China in December 2019. Within a period of three months, the cases rose to one Million which increased to 2 Million within further 2 weeks and its further spread is nearing 3 Million within further 2 weeks time i.e. by the end of April 2020 the figures may cross 3 Million cases.
The spread of COVID-19 is not uniform around the world.As per the data of 26th April 2020, the worst hit is United States with 970,757 cases,followed by Spain – 226,629 ,Italy- 197,675,France-161,488,Germany- 157,114 , U .K-152,840 , Turkey- 110,130 , Iran- 90481 , China- 82,827,Russia- 80,949 etc .
China reported 80,000 cases in the ist two months of Virus reported and thereafter by the end of March 2020 it spread to the West with the United States becoming the epicenter of the disease and reported 85% of new cases in just three countries – US, Spain and Italy and reported less than 500 cases in China.
Now the question arises whether the non-uniformity of spread is attributed to local factors of each country or attributed to handling the problem by each country or the spread of the virus is natural or man-made? This is not easy to answer for anyone. The accusations are directed towards China for not disclosing before the spread or a step further the virus is a product of the laboratory but it is not easy to be substantiated by evidence. This is to be investigated to reach any conclusion and the question still remains a question that ‘ who can tell us the story’?
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