COVID19- SUCCESS STORIES AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN AND PLAN AHEAD..

Learning is an art but implementing it well is all about the right intentions and well-executable actions.

 I think this very well explains how despite few countries not being so well off in healthcare, have managed to somehow defeat corona virus and the big players have been failing miserably. Two of those which come to my mind are Turkey and Vietnam. I would love to share with you all some of their fruitful strategies and what we hope to gain from them:

* Turkey followed a very strategic and early lockdown strategy and not a blanket ban since they were able to detect their first case on March 10. While younger population was allowed to carry work if it wasn't public interfacing, elderly were strictly asked to stay indoors. They have a demography very much like India with mostly young population dominating the region.

* While we being the largest exporter of Hydrochloroquine(HCQ) kept doubting and listening to other researchers despite our few reputed doctors claiming that HCQ would be effective in the initial stage, Turkey very well kept its faith on the drug and used it in the initial stages to control the virus and now they reaping results of it.

* Vietnam and Turkey both have kept their testing rates high. India now has sufficient around a million kits but still our testing rates are quite low. We need to ramp up this specially now when we have uplifted the lockdown. Testing less can only keep numbers low in our mind but we can't escape from the reality and need of the hour. We need to keep in mind that still we haven't reached the peak and thus we have to increase our testing rates.

A very important part of our strategy should be to deal with this pandemic with a sense of empathy. While its tragic to see how migrants faced the brunt of a hurried and misconstrued state directive, it was also good that their plight was felt and understood by many. However still we have such groups in our society which are worse than them and we pay no heed to them and among them the first which comes to my mind are the sex workers. Dingy residential places and suspicious eyes of society are driving them into the worst affected fringe sections. Its high time that now we recognise prostitution so that these people get their due and are thus catered upon.

Lastly now when our PM too has given the motto of being "Aatm Nirbhar" (no pun intended), we necessarily have to keep a check on ourselves. The authorities of both the countries were able to somewhat defeat the virus only because citizens cooperated by following norms of Social distancing. So despite the unlock in place, we all need to follow the guidelines and try to take cue from these successful corona warriors as of now.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!!