The prime instructive for everyone should be to get tested immediately, as soon as you start exhibiting the symptoms. Unfortunately, hospitals in Bangladesh lack infrastructures such as medical kits and PPEs (Personal Protective Equipment) to detect a SARS-CoV infestation. This means that you could already be affected and not have a way to know about it.
Under such conditions, your best bet is to self-quarantine. For the time being, the best thing you could do is limit contact with people and not get out of your home unless absolutely necessary. This will make sure that external pathogens cannot enter your atmosphere as well as ensure that you not infect anyone else in the off-chance that you yourself are infected.
Prevention is better than cure. Like any virus, preventive measures for SARS-CoV is to maintain hygiene.
Wash hands often. Avoid touching anything open to the public. Wear a mask while on the road. Maintain as much distance from people as possible. Cover your face before sneezing. Do not litter. Avoid going to school, to work or shopping unless absolutely necessary. Avoid physical contact such as hand-shakes or hugs. Keep your hands away from your nose, mouth and eyes.
Have anyone that walks into your home wash their hands with soap. Soap has proven to be deadly against the SARS-CoV virus. Bar all kinds of friendly visits, and only attend the visits that are absolutely necessary.
Self-preservation elevates friendship.
A huge reason for fear is that people are still unaware of the actual situation. This is because not everyone has access to the internet like us.
They do not understand how the coronavirus outbreak is anything unique. While on one hand newspapers are censoring information due to their ethical responsibility of not causing unrest, on the other, most of the underprivileged people do not even read the little amount of information newspapers do share. So, they ignore anyone who makes a big deal about it, as well as joke about them.
We need to understand that these are a part of the more unfortunate population. It is our duty to educate them on hygiene. We need to make sure we educate them on coronavirus and the necessity of self-quarantine. This is because if we do not, then this underprivileged community would be the perfect carriers of the pathogen into our own ecosystems.
Extremists and fanatics are always a problem in any social crisis. This is because, their beliefs are turgid, and they are not open at all to a valid and argumentative discussion. These people could be either religious or political. Recently, newsfeeds of social media of Bangladeshis have been flooded with how a group of individuals disobeyed the ban on social gatherings and attended the weekly Jummah Jamat. While on one hand, it is sad that the government despite the worldwide panic, has still not been able to shut down mosques, on the other, any person that takes part in this Jamat endangers everyone there. These people return to their families after the prayers, meaning that they could endanger their families and not even know about it. These family-members endanger everyone they come in contact with. Thus, this congregation alone harms hundreds of people directly, and a thousand others indirectly.
Religious sentiments are important to an individual’s identity, but no religion supports endangering anyone for their beliefs. Congregation of any kind, be it in religious spaces, shopping malls, roads or factories; everything needs to be stopped, if not voluntarily then by force. There has been claims of coronavirus reports going undeclared. We do not have quality physicians, and the physicians we do have are confused because of lack of proper facilities and PPE instruments. Listening to fanatic politicians could endanger an entire species at this moment.
“The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.” – Dante Alighieri
A few residents have come down on to the streets of their own houses and are spraying everyone with disinfectants. While this is a noble initiative, keep in mind that nobody should be on the streets in the first place. This means that the fact that these good Samaritans are still getting people to spray, itself is problematic. Furthermore, despite all efforts, there is no way to ensure that one of the infected pedestrians would not end up infecting these kind souls. You can take all the precautions in the world, but that still leaves that little chance.
Videos of the Kamalapur rail station being crowded have gone viral. The government has taken a wise initiative closing down all offices and shops. However, the misinformed workers have started treating this lockdown as a vacation. They are leaving for their village-homes all huddled up in bogies or busses. This is endangering everyone in the transport, as well as the relatives back at home. This can prove to be deadly and therefore, due to the lack of a better alternative, the government has to shut down all forms of public transport.
We are a nation that does not understand their limitations. For this reason, deploying troops to keep the people in their homes is absolutely necessary. Countries that have given up their freedom in the hands of the military in these troubled times, namely India etc. have shown positive results.
It is very understandable that all these preventive quarantine measures feel pretty lonely, and it’s also true that the author has no idea how long this has to continue.
But when you yourself have no idea whether or not you are carrying the pathogen, endangering everyone around you just because you are not willing to make this small sacrifice is utterly selfish. Besides, you could get infected if you are not already because you chose to get out and explore. Keep in mind that we do not know enough about this virus for reaching any conclusion yet.
As a very wise meme-lord once said, “It’s all fun and memes until it happens to someone close to you.”
Keep an eye out for people that might exhibit symptoms. If someone, or you yourself exhibit symptoms, call the IEDCR hotline immediately. The government is yet to permit any private organization to test for coronavirus infestation. I am leaving the hotlines for IEDCR.
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