Let us not fall prey to Coronavirus fatigue

This picture has been used for representational purpose

Going by number-crunching, we are seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases not just in Mumbai but across Maharashtra. Numbers show that there have been over 600 cases in Mumbai. The doubling rate has gone from over 600 days to 400, which may give rise to niggling concerns.

We have reasons like the opening of local trains for everybody and the fact that there is an uptick in testing. All that may very well be true but let us not lose sight of the fact that there is a rise in cases, and this is reason enough to press not the alarm button but the caution button.

COVID fatigue has seen us lower our guards by and large, though there may be exceptions. Government action is one matter, the other is, the individual. Masks have slipped off many faces recently. They are worn around necks or not at all.

Sanitisers are being eschewed thanks to complacency. Let us hit the bottle again, with fervour and those who are reading this, surely know which bottle we are talking about. Remember too, that doctors had advocated hand-washing saying this is better than using hand sanitisers. So when you do have an option, you must wash your hands as much as possible.

Just three months into masks, distancing and sanitising, several citizens groups and people had already spoken about carrying these habits much beyond the pandemic, making hygiene and cleanliness a part of their DNA. Now, we areslipping up on basics just a few months into the outbreak, let alone forever.

Let us not fall prey to fatigue and get lulled into a false sense of complacency. We are not out of the woods yet. Let not panic and speculation, but a sense of reality and good sense prevail.