Last week brought some comforting news amid deaths and despair. Mumbai’s COVID-19 caseload dipped; the Centre doubled state’s Remdesivir supply immediately after the demand was made and worked on giving Maharashtra more oxygen from all possible sources, in the middle of fears that the quantity needed to be increased if active cases continued to spike; the import duties on pandemic related items were waived off for next three months. Above all, the political parties decided to slow down poll campaigning in West Bengal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi cancelled his rallies and diverted his attention to the issue that the people and opposition wanted him to address on a priority basis. It’s a challenge that the PM faces amid expectations from the country that is divided vertically over his handling of the pandemic since last year. “After successfully confronting the first wave of Corona, the country was full of enthusiasm, full of self-confidence, but this storm has shaken the country,” Modi said in the 76th episode of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ on Sunday, while pledging the Centre’s entire might to give a fillip to the endeavours of state governments.

Maharashtra has been a glaring example of helplessness, frustration and anger that the successive COVID waves have induced. Primarily, Maharashtra suffers the most and pays heavily for being the country’s economic power house. The state’s sufferings extend across the country because of its migrant working population that supports families back home. The State Bank of India’s report says that migration of labour from key economic hubs across Maharashtra to their respective hometowns poses a great risk to the manufacturing sector. In the first fortnight of April about 9 lakh migrants have returned home, says the report, adding that Maharashtra will incur an economic loss of around Rs 82,000 crore, and the loss will increase further if restrictions get harsher.