Covid’s second wave

With reference to news report ‘Next 4 weeks critical to battle 2nd Covid wave: NITI Aayog’s Paul’ (April 7), it is really an alarming situation where the Covid pandemic is once again reappearing in the country with greater intensity and mutants. Social distancing and other safety norms are not being enforced properly, which is a cause of major worry for the country. All the financial efforts put up by both the Centre and the States are just going into the drain. State governments must immediately start penalising persons not wearing masks. We cannot be so careless in the face of such a deadly pandemic.

Katuru Durga Prasad Rao

Hyderabad

This refers to Editorial ‘Covid Round 2’. In the initial days of the outbreak the panic button was slammed so hard that people were left to their fate but fortunately the outcome was not as deadly as predicted. So people by and large believed that the Covid-19 threat was blown out of proportion. Now with the onset of second wave citizens are blissfully ignoring all Covid protocols. Also, in the recent election rallies people were seen throwing all caution to winds but still the positivity rate in poll bound States is relatively lower. There are reports too of a handful of people testing positive after getting vaccinated. These contradicting scenarios are befuddling the public.

Furthermore the government agencies rather than ensuring compliance of Covid appropriate behaviour is plucking low hanging fruits by resorting to lockdowns.

Lastly the board exams for class Xth and XIIth are slated next month, and the government is duty bound to ensure that examinations are not deferred on account of surging cases. Necessary steps need to be initiated for smooth conduct of examinations.

Deepak Singhal

Noida

'Maintaining status quo'

Apropos ‘RBI maintains status quo on policy rates’ (HBL, April 7), the RBI mandated Monetary Policy Committee, chaired by its Governor Shaktikanta Das, has yet again decided to keep rates unchanged at 4 per cent and maintain its accommodative stance to support growth till the prospects of sustained recovery are well secured while closely monitoring the outlook on inflation. Significantly, the central bank also recently announced to continue with its usual 'inflation targeting' policy stance, for the next five years. While the MPC’s latest move could possibly have been impacted by the second surge of Covid-19 cases raising concerns about economic recovery and rising inflation but still this stance does not come as a surprise. Mind you, the Repo-rate has remained static at 4 per cent since May 22, 2020, after being brought down from 4.40 per cent as prevailing on March 27, 2020.

As against this, the year 2019 had witnessed some massive downward tinkering therewith. Curiously enough, the IMF is also reported to have predicted a high growth for the Indian economy. However, let us 'wait and watch' the situation as it may emerge at ground zero.

Kumar Gupt

Panchkula (Haryana)

Healthcare imperatives

This refers to the article ‘Bridging 'health gap’ (April 7). Indeed Indians have greater health consciousness and awareness, thanks to the growing technology, web apps and media.

This awareness is being translated into unprecedented rise in demand for healthcare services. But the supply side is not matching the demand in spite of the outcome of increased number of medical graduates and steady increase in health insurance coverage.

The recent pandemic calls for better government health services, especially in rural areas, and greater state spending on health. . Nevertheless the health gap between the exponential rise in demand for health services and the supply going at linear rate must be bridged with quality medical service at the earliest.

NR Nagarajan

Sivakasi

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