Letters to the Editor dated April 8, 2020

This refers to the editorial ‘Testing times’ (April 8). The pivotal agencies — ICMR, NIV and DCGI — are not on the same page and the lack of synergy is worrisome and regrettable. All the three need to complement each other and play the role of facilitator rather than working in silos. The government is contemplating selective lifting the lockdown in non-hotspots. But without testing how can one know whether such pockets are hotspots or not. By all accounts testing is inevitable for all future actions. Equally, the quality of testing is of paramount importance. There are reports than even in premier hospitals there is a dearth of health gear.

Chennai

Apropos ‘Covid-19 pushes coffee sector further into fiscal woes’ (April 8), it is more a matter of concern for the core growing community than the exporters, whose fears are entirely different. Being an annual crop and black pepper having lost its sheen due to various international trade developments, the actual growers have been pushed to a dead end.

The only panacea for the growers is interest waiver for at least two quarters, apart from deferment of EMIs, as the sector is highly labour oriented and the corona scare is likely to push the wages further up.

Halekere Village, Karnataka

Despite prior announcement of the 21-day lockdown period, many States are demanding extension of the lockdown to allay fears and to mitigate the spread of the virus. The impact of the lockdown has affected the economy drastically, including slowing the growth, migration, closure of public transport and rising unemployment. The government should make a quick decision either to lift the lockdown soon or to extend the same. This will dispel fake messages and rumours now doing the rounds in social media.

An early decision by the government will not only help the citizens gear up for upcoming days but also help the agencies fight against the pandemic by staying abreast of the situation and prepare well by procuring necessary PPE kits, ventilators, medical supplies, etc., if the need arises.

Bengaluru

This refers to ‘Blueprint for a post-pandemic economy’ (April 8). Even as the government is evaluating whether to extend the lockdown or lift it in a staggered manner, a blueprint of an economic revival package is needed.

When life gets back to normal, the Centre will have to walk the extra mile and adopt a more collaborative approach with States without which economic revival will not be possible. Coming to MSMEs, without an iota of doubt, the government will have to provide them both financial and technological support as this sector has the potential of turning around things.

Noida

A tigress named Nadia at the Bronx Zoo in New York testing positive for the coronavirus came as a novel development. The big cat was found to have been infected by an asymptomatically infected zoo keeper.

Hitherto the general fear has been that animals including pets and livestock might infect humans with Covid-19, but now the infection of the tigress has pointed to the risk of the fauna being infected with Covid-19 by humans as vectors.

Covid-19 is a new virus and its behaviour and variations in behaviour in the animal kingdom are not fully known to us. A virus that jumps species barriers may be relatively harder to overcome. The other species such as leopards and cheetahs in the same zoo that came into contact with the zoo keeper who infected Nadia did not contract the virus.

Meanwhile, Nadia’s infection has prompted conservationists and wildlife enthusiasts to alert the world of the need to save the evolutionary cousins of humans or naked apes — gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans — from the bio-threat in the form of Covid-19.

Maruthancode, TN

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