How do we prepare ourselves against Covid pandemic?

PC  THOMAS

The exponential hike in coronavirus cases is troublesome for the people across the planet. The World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that the pandemic will wreak further havoc on the face of the earth.

Now, newer blueprints are emerging in India’s Covid-19 surge with cases crossing a million-mark. With the fear looms large, the coming back of complete lockdowns in various parts of India is even more worrying.

Bihar has been declared completely closed for two weeks from Saturday. Major cities in various states have been closed. U.P and M.P are under complete lockdown during weekend, Sundays. Guwahati, the capital of Assam has been in lockdown since June 28. Pune in Maharashtra on June 13 and Bangalore on July 14 were closed. Calcutta is in a partial lockdown in various cantonment zones. In Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram is on a triple lockdown from July 6. At least one-third of the country's population is facing lockdowns again in at least 10 states.

Now, one question people seek an answer is what we can do now to resist? - It is difficult to answer. However, we can boost our resilience, which is our single best weapon for dealing with stress. This one disease, Covid-19 can provide us with such wisdom beyond our comprehension. It offers a plethora of lessons on a personal, regional and planetary level showing the urgency to promote necessary transformations of our society to survive in the twenty-first century. 

In order to keep the virus under control, it is important that people must follow social distancing protocol effectively. The more people we have exchanges with, the more possibility the virus has to spread. Hence, try to limit the number of people we see - especially over short periods of time. All People should adhere to the government guidelines, wearing masks and sanitization regularly.

As the crisis allows us to find additional meaning in our lives, many little things surprisingly become very important for us. What to do now?  - As a very little measure, do yoga regularly as breathing exercises will increase our lung capacity. As heart rate increases, breathing becomes rapid and the virus will likely find it difficult to gain a foothold. Those who are smoking quit their habits as smoking damages the lungs providing a foothold for infections.

Although the Covid time affects our emotions, memories, feelings and perspectives, it should help us to transform our vision of life for better and to develop our character. A crisis like this teaches us lessons we would not learn when things are pleasant. We are the sum of the experiences that we come across as we go through life. As human beings, when we encounter a challenge, we have liberty on how to respond to it. Every decision that we make leads us down a different road.

Although there are many unforeseen transformations are brought into our lifestyle, we can use this time more effectively and the crisis can be changed into an opportunity to better the quality of our life!.

This article published in Metro Vaartha on 21.7.2020