Corona: Infographics, Vocab and Lock Down - 23rd and 24th March 2020
23rd and 24th March 2020
Epicenter of Covid-19 outbreak has now shifted to Europe - Spain and Italy in particular. Italy had surpassed China - where it all had originated - in total number of deaths. USA had reported ~9000 new positive cases and Italy had reported 700+ deaths on 23rd March. UK, USA, Germany, France - biggest of economic and military super power country on the planet had fallen into the clutches of the Covid-19 disease being caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus. Wonder how it was named.
The only guy who seemed to be oblivious was Mr. Bolsonaro, President of Brazil. He refused to accept the covid-19 as a serious issue and instead said that the media reporting around covid-19 outbreak is a conspiracy to topple his government. Here's another one. So much so that Mr. Donald Trump, who had been downplaying the corona virus threat and was reluctant to enforce aggressive measures to contain covid-19 spread till that time, appeared sober and scientific in comparison.
This was the age of data sciences, technology was being used extensively to depict the spread of Covid-19. Dynamic graphs, charts and visualization have flooded the internet. Some were tracking real time data, other simulating the infection spread. Here is the list of what I personally found useful and / or interesting - accuracy of the information is not guaranteed.
Worldmeters - Most popular and commonly referred for global updates
Coronatracker - An international open source project
India Covid-19 Tracker - A crowd sourced initiative specific to India
Statista - For some really interesting infographics
Social Distancing Simulation - by India in Pixels you tube channel
Healthmap - corona outbreak spread in dark mode
It was interesting that USA - world biggest superpower - had been calling it "the Chinese virus". Whether USA retains its biggest superpower status after the end of this pandemic remains to be seen. Not just in tweets, President of the United States remained firm in calling it a "Chinese Virus" even in his press briefings.
Of course, there were some sharp reaction from the Chinese as well.
While rest of the world was succumbing to Covid-19, China was miraculously able to contain the spread, limit the new infections and recover from the pandemic. Stories started floating around - did China plan the pandemic outbreak, are we in middle of biochemical war, did USA plan the outbreak - many such theories were doing rounds. More on such theories later, first let's improve our vocabulary.
LIVE: Press Briefing with Coronavirus Task Force https://t.co/3WQV4egsWc
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 18, 2020
Corona Vocab - Quarantine, Social Distancing, Sanitizer and N-95 Mask
The world was panicking. There was no solution in sight for the crisis at hand. Only advisories - Travel Advisory, Health Care Advisory, Law and Order Advisory, Essential Services Advisory. But something that caught the attention of everyone, literally everyone in the world - is the Personal Health Advisories - the preventive measure to be taken against infection from covid-19. For details, read the ones from WHO, CDC - USA and MOHFW (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare), INDIA Few of the words, particularly - "Quarantine, Social Distancing, Sanitizer and N-95" had shot into limelight, language and lives on everyone on the planet.
Every dog has its day. Well some words have their day too, actually they have months. in the first quarter of 2020, Corona has shaped the tone for rest of the year and years to come. Let me decode them for you, one by one.
Quarantine - In the month of Valentine, "Quarantine" became the buzz word. Do you know the difference between "valentine" and "quarantine". During Valentine - two people sit close together, in quarantine - they sit apart - 1 or 2 meter or more - depending upon whose guideline it is. However technically - there is difference between isolation and quarantine.
People were being quarantined - in their homes, in shelters, in make shift buildings. Wealthy ones went into quarantine at hotels and resorts. Some filthy rich people put their luxury holiday quarantines on display on social media - facebook, twitter, instagram.
So much disparity of the wealth distribution, but the virus was new on earth, it did not how & with whom to discriminate. Fear was spreading faster than the virus itself. Weeks before lock downs were enforced, 14 to 21 day quarantine - depending upon who issued the guideline - was made mandatory for people coming in from "affected or hotspot" areas. Some relied on sincerity of their citizen, others on app based high-tech monitoring. Indian being ingenious, stamped people with indelible ink - the same ink which is used to mark that you have casted your "vote". Some said, if "votes" were cast responsibly enough, we would not have been living in quarantines.
So much disparity of the wealth distribution, but the virus was new on earth, it did not how & with whom to discriminate. Fear was spreading faster than the virus itself. Weeks before lock downs were enforced, 14 to 21 day quarantine - depending upon who issued the guideline - was made mandatory for people coming in from "affected or hotspot" areas. Some relied on sincerity of their citizen, others on app based high-tech monitoring. Indian being ingenious, stamped people with indelible ink - the same ink which is used to mark that you have casted your "vote". Some said, if "votes" were cast responsibly enough, we would not have been living in quarantines.
Decoding corona virus was a hot topic and was frantically being researched. The world was learning how corona virus spreads and found out two of the most common modes of spread were - i) Person to person contact and ii) contact with contaminated surfaces. Prevention against these mode of spread led to the rise of our next buzzwords - Social Distancing and Sanitizers.
Social Distancing - was the prescription to avoid person to person spread. Depending upon whose advisory it is, it was recommended to maintain a distance of 3 to 6 feet (approx. 1 - 2 meters). Government meetings to grocery shops, e-commerce deliveries to escalators and lifts - suddenly it was social distancing every where. The way mobile phones have invaded our spaces, I wish there was some social distancing with mobile phones as well. Also the word triggered some really funny memes online. Some fun in the times of Corona. Take a look.
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| People in Queue at a Medicine shop, Patna. Such a welcome relief overcrowding. |
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| A "social distancing" meme |
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| Social Distancing in practice - somewhere in southern India |
Sanitizer - the public health advisories - almost all of them - recommend washing hands frequently after you have touched with soap or alcohol based hand rub or as it was commercially called "Sanitizer". Washing hands was already good practice of personal hygiene being followed all over the world. Dry washing hands with sanitizer caught fancy of the world. It was almost like the sanitizer would kill the virus. India went into overdrive to buy sanitizers and so was the case in many other countries, as if it were the medicine or vaccine for the covid-19. The product went out of stock, prices sky rocketed. The Market got flooded with fake and expensive products. Making sanitizers at home become new DIY project. In case you too and still want to make one at your home. Public health authorities worldwide later came out with communication declaring hand wash with soap is a better choice, use santizers only when you don't have water available.
A personal incident related to "sanitizer". I had bought couple of sanitizer packs - 50 ml ones - around 3 - 4 months back. I gave it to my wife to use in situations like train travel, visit to restaurants or a doctor. She rarely used it. So much so that we had not even used half a pack, second pack was not even opened. All this was before the corona crisis. After the crisis, if I stepped outside house or went near even my neighbors or touched anything that came from outside, I was asked to "sanitize" my hands. Our resources were depleting fast, so I went to nearest pharmacy to buy some. As soon as I asked if he had sanitizer, the guy at the counter gave me a look which was that of "notional loss". He explained, till a few days he had some 30 packs which were lying since months. When a customer bought all the stock he had, he had happily sold it thinking the products might expire. Such was the rush.
N-95: N-95 is a type of mask which blocks at least 95% of very small (0.3 micron) particles - well that's too technical, it simply means its slightly high end compared to surgical masks and other generic masks. The mask is recommended for use by professionals who manage respiratory infection program in high risk situation - doctors, nurses etc. The race to protect oneself from the unseen corona virus which was spreading through respiratory droplets had made everybody rush to buy a mask for themselves. And there was scarcity of the mask for those who needed it the most - health care workers.
A full A-to-Z of the corona virus pandemic later.
A full A-to-Z of the corona virus pandemic later.
23rd and 24th March were the Day 1 and 2 of complete lock down in state of Bihar. All public transport and most of the private enterprises and office remained shut, only those pressed into essential services remained open. Even before the lock down the state government had ordered several measures to discourage crowd and gatherings and readying the medical infrastructure and even the Epidemic Diseases Act was enforced in the state. However government offices, banks remained open. And banks remaining open was a cause of personal concern. Two members in my family are employed in Public Sector Bank, which are usually crowded places as they serve a large number of customer, mostly poor and lower middle income people. Thankfully there had been no crowd in the branch since announcement of the lock down. Also the bank management decided to curtail banking to only few essential services. True concern for near and dear ones surfaces much more in hours of crisis. Such was the concern that when I visited my sister that evening, I barely entered her apartment, fearing I do not contaminate or infect anything.
The lock down had triggered panic buying. Grocery stores and Vegetable markets remained crowded and I feared if would erase all the progress made on the day of Janta Curfew. Maharashtra and Punjab had announced curfews and Delhi warned of a curfew if situation did not improve. Unfortunately, systems and processes were still not measuring upto the crisis, some people thought. One of my friends was returning from New Delhi to Patna to be with his parents. He was screened with a remote thermometer and let go, no details recorded, no questions asked. If processes were made a bit stringent, some people would have called it government's arm twisting.
The roads however wore deserted look during mornings, I prefer to call it peaceful.
The lock down had triggered panic buying. Grocery stores and Vegetable markets remained crowded and I feared if would erase all the progress made on the day of Janta Curfew. Maharashtra and Punjab had announced curfews and Delhi warned of a curfew if situation did not improve. Unfortunately, systems and processes were still not measuring upto the crisis, some people thought. One of my friends was returning from New Delhi to Patna to be with his parents. He was screened with a remote thermometer and let go, no details recorded, no questions asked. If processes were made a bit stringent, some people would have called it government's arm twisting.
The roads however wore deserted look during mornings, I prefer to call it peaceful.
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| Bailey Road, Patna at 10:00 AM on 23rd March 2020 |
The Lock Down
24th March 2020, 08:00 PM - Once again an 08:00 PM address to the nation by the Prime Minister. This time a complete lock down for 21 days was announced as a containment measure against spread of covid-19. Only essential services were exempted. Public transport was completely shut down.
People had been discussing the next step after the Janta curfew. Schools, colleges, multiplexes, malls - everything was being shut in phased manner. On my way back home from office, I stopped to buy some vegetable. The vendors told that they been asked to vacate the shops in two hours time. Gut feel, I think had been inbuilt in human system for precisely such situations. It kicked in, I could almost sense the lock down coming. And I did my share of panic buying - vegetables and grocery. Infact no body was rushing to buy clothes, jewellery, accessories, electronics, mobiles - nothing. Guess a little crisis is all one needs to help distinguish between need and greed.
Many western countries had already resorted to lock down under disastrous situation, USA and UK being exceptions till that point of time. Locking down a country of 1.3 billion plus was simply not possible. But it happened. The biggest lock down till date in human history. And as they say, rest is history. Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India issued order for lock down along with necessary guidelines. A series of other notices by MoHA, GoI were also issued to provide further clarification.
The Lock down would have its ripple effect, some anticipated others unforeseen. While many viewed this forced holiday as a welcome break, for those involved in essential services it meant working in high risk situation and for many many others it would bring unimaginable hardship. As any coin would have two facets, this lock down had more than two - good, bad and ugly. I do not know if life would change post this lock down but what was certain that the impact of this lock down and the covid-19 pandemic itself will last for quite some time to come.
Take Care.
People had been discussing the next step after the Janta curfew. Schools, colleges, multiplexes, malls - everything was being shut in phased manner. On my way back home from office, I stopped to buy some vegetable. The vendors told that they been asked to vacate the shops in two hours time. Gut feel, I think had been inbuilt in human system for precisely such situations. It kicked in, I could almost sense the lock down coming. And I did my share of panic buying - vegetables and grocery. Infact no body was rushing to buy clothes, jewellery, accessories, electronics, mobiles - nothing. Guess a little crisis is all one needs to help distinguish between need and greed.
Many western countries had already resorted to lock down under disastrous situation, USA and UK being exceptions till that point of time. Locking down a country of 1.3 billion plus was simply not possible. But it happened. The biggest lock down till date in human history. And as they say, rest is history. Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India issued order for lock down along with necessary guidelines. A series of other notices by MoHA, GoI were also issued to provide further clarification.
Take Care.
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