Vaccination the only answer : Growing cases
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 05, 2021 -

Come out and get vaccinated. The situation is not a joke. The statistics should reflect the scary reality.

Till date, that is till July 4, 2021, the number of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus is 72,286.

And there is no indication that the infection surge will go down anytime in the near future, for Manipur has been reporting new cases in triple digits for months on end and this situation is mirrored in the fact that the lowest new cases recorded on a day was June 21, when Manipur reported only 353 new cases.

Yet this comparatively low number of fresh cases was offset by the fact that it was on this date that the State returned the highest daily positivity rate of 15.54 percent in June and till today.

This means that for every one hundred person tested, nearly 16 persons returned positive results.

This is way above the 5 percent ceiling advocated by the World Health Organisation for Governments across the world to even entertain the idea of opening up. So does this mean that Manipur should continue to curtail the free movement of people?

If this is about the number of fresh cases reported each day and the daily positivity rate, then each day has also been adding to the number of deaths due to COVID-19.

Till July 4, 2021 the number of deaths stands at 1196. Add the fact that the Delta variant of the virus is now widespread in Manipur and the only way forward for the place and the people to limp back to normalcy is to strictly adhere to the Covid Appropriate Behaviour and get the vaccine shots when their turn comes.

Till July 3, 2021, the number of people who have received their vaccination shots has been pegged at 7,05,693 and out of this those who have received their second shot is 85,275.

This figure alone does not tell the whole undiluted story for the fact stands that there are still many who have refused to step out and get themselves vaccinated.

This is serious and the Government will need to do more to convince the people that vaccination is the only way forward for normalcy to return.

'Very dangerous period' this is how the Director General of the World Health Organisation has put it, in the face of the fast mutating Delta strain of the coronavirus.

Making this observation all that more disturbing for Manipur is the fact that infection from the Delta variant is widespread in Manipur.

On July 2, IDSP, Manipur confirmed that 69 samples which were tested had turned out to be positive for the Delta variant and this is besides the 18 such cases which were reported earlier.

The Delta variant is more transmissible and countries where the vaccination coverage is low, are witnessing 'terrible scenes in hospitals' -

This was again the Director General of World Health Organisation and observations such as this need to be highlighted to convince the people to come forward for their vaccination shots. The people need to be more responsible.