Quarantining can be frustrating, but you know what’s worse? Fueling the pandemic by traipsing around town only to compel the government to extend the quarantine period. About a week ago, the Prime Minister of my country, Mr. Narendra Modi, enforced a 21-day complete lockdown, even limiting the hours of work for essentials such as pharmacies and grocery stores nationwide.
Now, while this may seem a bit drastic to most of you, considering the fact that the number of cases in the United States far exceed those in India, it is a step that needed to be taken to avoid the virus from blowing up the way that it has in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. As much as I and other citizens of my country often complain about how mismanaged and inefficient the government is, today, I am proud of it.
Well, for starters, I found that the United States did not seem to react appropriately to the outbreak when it first came to the U.S.—in fact, most of my friends thought I was overreacting when I canceled all my plans for spring break (and maybe I was, but I’m glad I did because ain’t nobody want COVID-19), but what shocked me was that even after declaring a handful of deaths, the individual states in the country did not take any drastic action such as blocking any travel or implementing checks at the airport. The Indian government, on the other hand, began implementing checks at the main big-city airports in Mumbai and New Delhi by making every passenger on international flights, irrespective of the port of journey, to fill out a health declaration form and pass a temperature check to ensure that passengers are healthy. Quite honestly, when I first heard about this, I was like oh, it’s probably really poorly managed and since it’ll be really crowded, most people are probably escaping the testing because nobody cares, but to my very pleasant surprise, the experience could not have run any smoother. Everyone stood systematically in two queues without any crowding around or complaints and I was done with the check and handed in the health declaration form in 15 minutes flat.
What’s more? India banned any influx of people, citizens or not, until April 15 and after a trial of 24-hours last week, the prime minister enforced the 21-day complete lockdown nationwide in a desperate effort to control the spread of the virus.
I’m not going to lie, having to sit at home all day does suck, but I know that my country is going to come out healthier, stronger and cleaner because of it and I can’t wait till this passes!
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