Early last week, there was a very interesting report in The Morning Standard, which mentioned that the dengue cases in the national capital had breached the three-year mark. Surprisingly, the report about the spike in the dengue cases was missed by almost every other newspaper.
Through the week, the readers on the contrary were served with the ‘news’ of Delhi Chief Minister promising a free trip to Ayodhya to the senior citizens of the city, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia holding consultations with a minister from Maharashtra on ‘Desh Bhakti’ curriculum for the schools and finally the Minister ‘at large’ Raghav Chadha serving a notice to Facebook.
In between came in the serological report for Covid-19 which said that 97 per cent of the city’s population had anti-bodies and the ‘threat of the virus’ was almost over. The timing of the report was interesting as it soon led to the announcement of opening the cinema halls to full capacity.
It was only towards the weekend, as the city went into the holiday mode that a small report appeared. A handout from a new agency, which mentioned that dengue had started to cripple the city. The handout said that the Delhi government had allowed the hospitals to divert one-third of beds reserved only for COVID-19 patients to the patients of dengue, malaria and chikungunya, as per the official order.
The Delhi Health and Welfare department said to have passed the order after observing the rise in cases of the above-mentioned vector-borne diseases. “All the hospitals under the GNCT of Delhi may use one-third of the beds including ICU beds, reserved for treating Covid patients, for treating patients of vector-borne diseases like Dengue/Malaria/Chikungunya, if required,” read the order.
The order also stated that “Many of the beds reserved for COVID-19 cases are lying vacant due to the decline in the number of Covid cases.” Surprisingly, such major admission of the fresh disease threat to the city came without the regulation picture of the Chief Minister and/or the Health Minister.
However, one could be assured of a battle of barbs between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokespersons and their Bharatiya Janata Party BJP) counterpart on who was to be held responsible for increase in disease, which in the month of October has already crossed the mark of the total number of cases witnessed in 2020. After all dengue or let’s say its spread has the potential of turning into a major poll issue in the municipal polls in the city scheduled for March-April next year.
City’s administration and governance in the past few years has been marred by the government always being in the populist mode. At the onset of summer this year, when Mr Kejriwal was talking about bringing Ram Rajya while participating in a discussion in the assembly on the city’s budget, the catastrophic virus was entering the city for the second wave.
The national capital was worst hit by the second wave of corona virus, with citizens left helpless in the face of the crumbling health infrastructure. There isn’t anything to suggest that the health infrastructure in the city has been improved since the murderous summer but we are happy celebrating the serology report, which is no guarantee against the return of the virus.
Last time it was typhoid with virus which caused havoc, God forbid, this time it could be dengue with viral fever. The government cannot keep ignoring the shortcoming and keep itself afloat through singing cantankerous populist lullabies.
Sidharth Mishra
Author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice