Upakar Paudel
More than one-and-half or two billion people are under lockdown for weeks globally because of COVID-19 pandemic. Many countries across the world are enforcing lockdown with strict measures and fines in place. Many people are forced to stay at home or work from home at the moment. We are left with two choices: either to complain about lockdown or just try to make the best of it. Remaining healthy and safe is the first thing we should try to do. Avoiding harm and possible harm to others by preventing infection, you are supporting government efforts and global efforts by just obeying the lockdown.
The spreading outbreak of novel coronavirus has severely impacted many of the daily functions of the international system. The global transport system is basically paralyzed, and even organizations like the European Union are in unprecedented chaos. Borders between member states have once again prevented the movement of people, and interception of medical supplies has continued to occur.The biggest human weakness exposed to the pandemic, which has not yet reached its climax, is the lack of the capacity for unity and coordinated action. There are already many organizations in the world, and global links such as trade, finance and information are well developed. But none of this has produced the real solidarity needed to fight a
crisis like a pandemic, and the international system is riddled with fragility.
The fundamental reason why China was able to effectively contain the epidemic in a short time is that the country has a high degree of coordination and unified action. The virus was able to spread around the world because the international system had no unified strategy to fight it. Even in Europe and the West, collaboration between different countries is weak with each country fighting on its own. The lines of defense that each has built cannot be connected to a Great Wall against the virus.
It is conceivable that most of the most dangerous challenges of the future will come from the nature after humans have accumulated a basic culture of co-existence. Since the beginning of the new century, we have experienced devastating natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes. This time, it was hit by novel coronavirus completely beyond imagination, which almost brought shock to the major economic activities of mankind. However, the total global expenditure on preventing natural disasters is far less than the total military expenditure of each country.
Global cooperation in priority settings
By considering COVID-19 is spreading so fast which causes difficulties in containing the disease, we, as a community of shared future for mankind, need better coordination in global cooperation and further improvement in the multi-sectoral cooperation in order to quickly take response and prevent from the pandemic. In addition, we also need better coherence of our resources with more international partners, at least, we can quickly improve our priority settings in sharing information and data, on research priority settings, on surveillance and response to outbreaks at a global level.
Cooperation on sharing information and data
In order to quickly share the information and datasets for countermeasures, the actions on fast and open reporting of outbreak data and sharing of virus samples, genetic information, and research results are encouraged for all international communities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as governmental institutions around the world. Through regional and country office of WHO, more preventive information against COVID-19 can be disseminated to the public in the vulnerable countries.
Coherence on research priority settings
All the governments and international foundation should be encouraged to support short-term and emergency response-related research projects to improve our understanding of the causes, risks, infectiousness, and threats of a pandemic. Health institutions at international level should be encouraged to organize the research priority settings on preventing the pandemic or averting the emergence of the disease. International conservation organizations start to take investigations on types of wildlife-pathogens interactions affecting human health. International environmental agencies can initiate researches on unsustainable transformations of natural environments and ecosystems that provide life-supporting services for our health.
Strong cooperation between India and Nepal needed to win the war against Corona virus
Nepal’s Experience
Nepal and India, though closest neighbours, represent a contrasting scenario. Nepal has land borders with both India and China, one an open border and the other controlled and regulated; the two being the most populous countries in the world.One would have normally expected some common characteristics between India’s experience and Nepal’s narrative. However, as against India’s current tally of over 55 thousand people infected by the coronavirus with over 1700 deaths as on May 06, in Nepal, there are only 99 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with no deaths from this disease. Nepal is in the Third stage of coronavirus like India where community transmission of infection also increased.
What did Nepal do to deal with the spread of coronavirus? Nepal also, like India, announced nation-wide lockdown from March 24th for a week until March 31st, which was extended first to April 7, then to April 15, and further to April 27 in a way, aligning its efforts with India’s. Nepal too focussed on social distancing measures and also to
personal and environmental hygiene.
The government of Nepal took some key measures such as suspension of cross border people’s movement through Nepal-India as well as Nepal-China borders. To provide relief packages, the local bodies in the country were asked to collect the details of the labourers engaged in the informal sector. The employers in the formal sector were, like in India, asked to pay wages and salaries to employees. Certain discounts were also offered to domestic consumers for the use of electricity. The medics and staff offering services to the coronavirus affected persons were given insurance coverage of 2.5 million Nepalese rupees. For the tenants working in the informal sector, the house owners were asked not to take rent for one month. Similarly, private schools were asked not to take fees from the students for one month. All these measures seemed well-aligned.
Some irritants-similar concerns
The Terai region of Nepal that borders with Indian states of Bihar, Bengal and Uttar Pradesh are most densely populated. Thousands of migrant workers of Nepal have returned from India, Qatar and other countries. Many Chinese tourists are reported to have visited Nepal after the outbreak of coronavirus in that country. Apart from that, many of the Nepalese also travelled between Nepal and China before the flights between the two countries were suspended.
There are reports that quite of few of those of the Nepalese who attended TablighiJamaat congregation in New Delhi are back to their homes. According to a media report (Deccan Herald, April 12), three Indian nationals who entered Nepal after the NizamuddinMarkaz, were staying in a mosque in Birgunj and have tested positive. Local administration, the report added, put 26 people residing in the mosque under quarantine. Afterwards, 12 more Indian nationals were found coronavirus positive in a local mosque in Udaypur district in eastern Nepal, who have now been placed in quarantine.
As compared to other countries, the situation is under more effective control in both Nepaland India. So, there is no need to panic. Nevertheless, both countries need to be extra cautious to see that the undesirable situation caused by coronavirus does not deteriorate. Both Nepal and India have been cooperating in sealing the border to stop the movement of people from one country to the other.
It was heartening to note that PM Oli spoke to PM Modi on April 10 and discussed ‘challenges raise by COVID-19’ and to keep intact the supply chain of essentials like medicines, food, gas, etc. from India to Nepal. They also discussed the plight of a large number of their stranded nationals (Kathmandu Post, April 11). After reports that thousands of Nepalis and hundreds of Indians were stranded at the border, the two governments have decided to care for each other’s citizens in their territories. In a televised address, PM Oli said that around 2,147 Nepalis were in quarantine on the Indian side and over 700 Indian nationals are in quarantine on the Nepali side.
Need for Closer Cooperation
Currently, both Nepal and India are under extended lockdown regimes to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which has infected 99 people in Nepal and over 55,000 people in India.
While no death has been reported in Nepal, in India as on May 5, death count exceeded 1560.The current phase of containment will have to be followed by well-crafted policies and programmes. The war against COVID-19 will be won by the people by strictly observing the prescribed routine of personal care and hygiene. The government can act only as facilitator and enabler. The people of the two countries can contribute in a significant way, particularly in the border areas, by ensuring effective and critical cooperation at the ground level.
After the ‘COVID-19 war’ is won, bilateral cooperation between Nepal and India has to shift to a higher platform to ensure quick repairs to the ravaged economy of the two countries in general and of the border regions in particular for which connectivity between the two countries would have to be further enhanced.
The US forever attacks on China have not stopped during the epidemic, reflecting the strong inertia of geopolitical thinking. The world is still essentially geopolitical in nature, and American political thinking is fully subordinate to this logic, affecting the basic direction of international politics. Getting out of this bondage requires a tremendous effort from the international community.The world is now more difficult because it is broken, and the reality of the crisis is making many people feel that way.No matter how far it pushes the world toward unity, everyone is willing to try.
The unity of the world first means the unity of the great powers. When great powers compete with each other, human solidarity is empty talk. Whether the top power is truly committed to promoting the continuous strengthening of international cooperation is of more decisive significance. Therefore, it must be said that the whole country of world is primarily responsible for the world's ability to cooperate far less than the human need to fight the epidemic.
It is never too late to mend. Human beings need to step up to build the ability to meet common challenges. This unprecedented global public health crisis should be an opportunity for us to recognize the urgency and take practical steps to build this capacity. So many people can't die in vain, so many companies can't go bankrupt for nothing. The world needs to learn from each failure. Mankind needs to see where we stand, what the risks are, and we must act. To summarize, COVID-19 is a new disease that has caused great impacts to the people’s daily life extraordinarily. We, as a community of shared future for mankind, need to take collectively and quickly strong emergency responses as a battle against our common enemy, the new coronavirus, not only in China but also in the world. All partners of international community and country leaders are encouraged to proactively take strategic actions as soon as possible to fight the COVID-19 together.
When we people change globally, the world changes. If a large percentage of billion people who are at home due to lockdown think, reflect, learn, and commit for a better world then we can certainly make this impossible possible. The virus has inflicted us pain, sorrow, grief, and economic crisis ahead that will last much longer. We have no choice but to deal with this and move on. The economic crisis can aggravate poverty and inflict hardships in billions of peoples' lives. But if we fail to learn lessons even in the aftermath of this pandemic, we are doomed to face further challenges may it be other pandemics or natural disasters that are related to climate change. Without global cooperation, the things look further gloomy ahead and hence, we as global citizens must work together in synergy. It is not the pandemic or lockdown but what we learn from it and how we respond to it globally, that will reshape the world emerging from this pandemic and the crisis it has unfolded. This pandemic should ring alarm bells across the world. It should be a global wake up call for the humanity. Hard times will end finally, and we will meet each other in the blooming spring soon.
Stay Home, Stay Safe, Stay Happy.
(Radiological Technologist.)