One year was enough for the government both at the centre and in Jammu & Kashmir for drawing the lessons from the failures of last year’s covid care policy and by the year end the government both at the centre and Jammu & Kashmir should have upgraded the health infrastructure sufficient enough to withstand the pressure of a covid like pandemic . Last year’s experiences had sent warning signals to government on upgradation of health emergencies in both government run hospitals and private clinics and nursing homes, but government went into deep slumber as if health experts had declared entire India a covid free country. Ironically Jammu & Kashmir Government put in its men and machinery in full gear just to hold DDC elections in December last year and did not think even about improving health infrastructure even in a single main referral hospital in Srinagar or Jammu but instead focused it’s whole attention on attraction of tourists amid unprecedented rise in the fresh strain of covid-19 pandemic. While the hotels used as quarantine centres last year have been hired by the government for the accommodation facilities of the DDC members and panchayat representatives, the rising shortage of beds in hospitals has forced the government to advice positive patients not to report at hospitals unless and until they develop issues of saturation level and breathlessness. While the top medical experts within and outside the country had warned of a more dangerous wave of covid -19 pandemic six months back the government in Jammu & Kashmir without looking for upgrading it’s health infrastructure even in the twin capital cities Srinagar and Jammu diverted it’s whole attention on tourism activities across Kashmir as if medical experts had declared whole India a covid free country. Though the countries in the neighbourhood of India took all precautionary measures to reduce the intensity of the second wave of the pandemic in peak winter moths but neither the government at the centre nor the LG administration in Jammu & Kashmir bothered to take such immediate measures for containing the spread of the second strain of the pandemic.
Miscalculated decisions showing a casual approach of the government in the ongoing vaccination drive in rural Kashmir are now signaling an unprecedented increase in the intensity of the fresh strain of pandemic in villages across Jammu & Kashmir. The vaccination drive if not fast tracked in villages may further deepen covid crisis in rural Kashmir. So there is obviously no short cut to time bound fast track vaccination drive in villages across Jammu & Kashmir.
Though the government started taking covid containment measures immediately after an unprecedented nonstop surge in the second wave started ringing alarm bells but the spread could not be contained immediately and even after one month lockdown there is no dip in the rising no of covid cases and deaths of covid patients this time. Had the government taken precautionary measures before the onset of summer this year, the situation won’t have gone out of hands and the frequency in no of covid deaths won’t have increased the way it has increased unprecedentedly more in Jammu region and less in Kashmir valley. Miscalculated decisions showing a casual approach of the government in the ongoing vaccination drive in rural Kashmir are now signaling an unprecedented increase in the intensity of the fresh strain of pandemic in villages across Jammu & Kashmir. The vaccination drive if not fast tracked in villages may further deepen covid crisis in rural Kashmir. So there is obviously no short cut to time bound fast track vaccination drive in villages across Jammu & Kashmir.
