If Covid-19 tested and tried the patience of people faced with a menace to life that is both frightening and invisible, the pandemic has thrown newer challenges to ruling dispensations across the world and inarguably the virus had been the biggest test of political leadership the world has ever witnessed in recent times. Political leaders across the world reacted differently and every leader will be judged by the results.
Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy briefings are a circus-like spectacle from his statements early on that paracetamol and bleaching powder can keep corona at bay. It had once stated that the virus is just like common cold and fever that “comes and goes”. As the positive cases surged, the CM stated that it “comes but does not go”.
Jagan on Wednesday dropped a bombshell on five crore people of Andhra Pradesh saying no one will be spared by Covid-19. “Every single person can contract the infection. No one can stop the spread of the virus. We have to live with it,” Jagan said. Jagan’s latest remarks add to the lengthening charge list of failures in both planning for a pandemic and executing an adequate response when it broke out. The public confidence in the government could further erode with such statements coming at a time when the onus of infusing confidence lies largely on the political dispensations.
Further, Jagan also admitted that containing the virus is near impossible with free movement across inter-state borders. “We have Telangana on the one side where cases are on the surge, we have Tamil Nadu on one side, Orissa on one side and Maharashtra on the other. There is free movement of people from across these borders. Therefore, it is impossible to contain the spread of virus from the border states,” he pointed out, clearly blaming the neighbouring states for the spread of virus in Andhra Pradesh and not admitting his own administration for its failure to properly and effectively combat the pandemic.
His remarks come in the wake of a new record high of 2,432 fresh cases of coronavirus were reported in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday as the state’s aggregate shot past the 35,000 mark while 44 deaths took the overall toll in the state to 452.
With the alarming rise in the Covid-19 cases, the CM stated that nothing can be done to contain the virus. “The only way is by scaling up awareness among people on COVID-19. People should take all precautionary measures. Those who contract the virus will have to take medicines,” Jagan stated. However, there are currently no proven medicines to treat Covid-19 patients.
