COVID health management in unsafe hands

The reports about the violation of protocol by a top bureaucrat of the Principal Secretary rank a day after he tested positive is an indication that health management of COVID-19 pandemic is not in safe hands. Though Financial Commissioner Health & Medical Education is heading the department for the second time in last ten years but increasing intensity of COVID-19 across Jammu and Kashmir and more so in valley shows his inability in strict enforcement of the protocol. Interestingly the Principal Secretary ranked officer who tested positive kept shuttling between Jammu and Delhi, Delhi and Srinagar and Srinagar and Jammu amid COVID-19 lockdown during last two months as he is also holding the position of Principal Resident Commissioner at Jammu and Kashmir House in New Delhi. Unfortunately the Government is not putting into public domain the name of the said Principal Secretary and identity of over half a dozen officers advised self quarantine by health specialists in Srinagar. Punishing commoners for violating the protocol and allowing a top babu to violate the protocol under broad day light a day after testing positive shows the contradiction of words and deeds of the COVID-19 health management teams in the implementation of the COVID-19 control measures. Self quarantine for over half a dozen senior officers who were in close contact with the top babu declared a COVID-19 infected person and administrative quarantine for the travelers from outside Jammu & Kashmir is yet another glaring example of the violation of the COVID-19 protocol by the power wielding people in Jammu and Kashmir Government. Amid unprecedented increase in both the no of deaths and as well as no of positive cases, the government has started the process of reopening schools which by all standards of understandabilities would put to greater risk the lives of over one lac teachers and about more than two lac children enrolled in schools across Jammu & Kashmir.
Breach of protocol whether by people in power or the panicked commoners would prove disastrous in coming months and as such human wisdom demands that protocols remain strictly in force till Jammu & Kashmir is declared COVID-free territory.
Violation of protocols by the top officials under full public glare and hasty decisions if not immediately stopped amid rising no of deaths and positive cases across Jammu & Kashmir would prove almost suicidal for the government as even after relaxing public movement from June 8 the central government has in its advisory clarified that ban on public gatherings will continue and most of the states have announced to continue the ban on interstate transport services. Breach of protocol whether by people in power or the panicked commoners would prove disastrous in coming months and as such human wisdom demands that protocols remain strictly in force till Jammu & Kashmir is declared COVID-free territory.