In January, when almost every state was reporting a decline in case numbers, Kerala was witnessing a surge -- contributing almost half of all cases in the country. By mid- February, the confirmed cases in the state had crossed 10 lakh, second only to Maharashtra.
IT doesn’t need a galaxy of experts to list what’s needed: boosting Covid vaccination, augmenting oxygen and beds, expanding genome sequencing, ramping up testing and tracing, bringing down the infection level — all of this double quick.
But as the second wave climbs higher each day, both in cases and deaths and the Centre and states scramble to respond, there’s a growing — and grudging — acceptance that one obvious fact eluded many. That, in a population of a billion plus, a pandemic doesn’t vanish as it seemed to do barely a couple of months ago. That a second wave was going to come.
