By The Editor: Siddharth Sehgal

It seems the lucky stars of the national capital New Delhi are not smiling on it this year. First the riots that gripped the city in fear and panic few days ago and now the virus that arose from Wuhan, China which struck terror into countries and governments across the globe have come knocking on our doors and we are barely prepared for it.

The 31 “confirmed cases” is just an official figure; and official numbers are usually diluted form of the actual count. Which means that there can be many more people with potential infections of Coronavirus and though a lot of people have been quarantined; there is always a chance that few cases will slip the net. The labor class and daily wage workers such as maids, newspaper and milk delivery boys can’t be quarantined. The problem does not lie with these individuals but in the situation they are in, they have to go out and earn their living, they cannot afford to be quarantined, more often than not they ignore signs of medical problems and do home made remedies and would only go to a doctor as a last resort, they are not properly educated on basic hygiene and sanitization, they live in cramped conditions where there is high chance of spreading and last but not the least their work entails getting in contact with people.

That is not to say, that educated people act wisely in such situations, the New Delhi patient who lives in Mayur Vihar travelled to Agra to celebrate a birthday party with six other people mainly children who are his kids friends and the end result is that two public schools in Noida had to be closed and sanitized. You’d think that with all the warnings, news, appeals and travel advisory to Italy this gentleman would have thought or acted wisely giving some thought to public safety. But like I said, there is no shortage of fools.

I personally think that these viruses and diseases are nature’s message to us that we are pushing its limits, government and public needs to take this more seriously. The medical supplies and hospitals should be prepared for an outbreak. The health agencies should be more proactive because if we face a pandemic here in India, it’s going to be a disaster and scientists are not sure that summer heat will contain or disrupt this virus. We should be alert but not panicking.