5 lessons for the future to be learned from fighting Covid-19

Team Udayavani, May 5, 2020, 12:16 PM IST

Covid-19 has taken over the world and have completely changed our lives. Certain things which felt quite unnecessary a few months ago such as telemedicines, online education system became extremely important during the pandemic.

The pandemic has also taught us a few lessons about the kinds of societies that will be required to withstand the future outbreaks.

Act fast

As the pandemic started spreading widely, certain countries such as South Korea immediately took prevention measures. They began quickly finding each infected person, tracing close contacts and placing them under quarantine, promoting basic hygiene measures to the public, such as frequent hand washing, cancelling public gathering, closing schools, extending the Spring Festival holiday, delaying return to work. But Countries like USA and Italy did not take precautionary measures and chose to ignore the initial warning signs of the pandemic.

Implementation is the key

Covid-19 has taught us that even those countries with resources and capacity hesitated to act on the pandemic which led to greater chaos. Britain balked initially at the prospect of drastically curbing civil rights. Italian industry groups are reported to have strongly resisted the idea of shutting down.

Healthcare facility

Covid-19 showed us, that the globe lacks the ability to assemble a powerful intensive care capacity and that the country must invest in healthcare facilities in order to be prepared.

Public Trust

For any country to fight a crisis, the government must gain the trust of the public. For people to stay at home and follow lockdown norms, government needs extraordinary public trust.

In certain places fear has worked well in making people stay home. In South Africa, police used whips to enforce a national curfew. While in Jordan, more than 1,600 people were imprisoned in the first three days of quarantine.

Encouraging people to join the fight

Each and every citizen of a particular country must join the fight against any pandemic or climate disasters to be able to overcome it. Amid Covid-19, all residents in the potential risk areas were encouraged to stay at home, which is an effective way to block the transmission routes. Doctors and nurses worked very hard in the hospitals, to screen the suspected cases, provide medical care for the confirmed cases,

Also, community health workers and volunteers, after the specific training, proactively participate in screening the suspicious infections, and help in implementing proper quarantine measures.