How are People from Assam Living abroad Dealing with the Corona Pandemic?

Nibir Deka:

The COVID-19 strand of coronavirus has created havoc in the world with 1,35,809 cases, 4,990 deaths and some 70,427 recovered as of 13th March (4pm IST). The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the situation as pandemic. "In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of COVID 19 cases, the number of deaths and the number of affected countries climbs even higher", an official said.

What started out in the market town of Wuhan, China, has transcended into a dystopian reality. Even though the Chinese government locked down Wuhan but the virus spread to other parts of country. This was the first phase of the outbreak.

The second phase of the outbreak saw the eruption of cases in other parts of the world. Some countries like Singapore managed to contain the spread, others failed. It was most notable in Italy. One of the reasons for the spread of the contagion was through travellers who came from China. Italy's lack of preparedness affected them a lot leading to 15,113 cases and more than 1016 deaths (as of 13^th March, 4 Pm) making it the second most vulnerable country, after China.

[caption id="attachment_54668" align="alignnone" width="660"] Photo credit: Janice Pariat[/caption]

At the heart of this pandemic, Janice Pariat, popular columnist born in Assam, is stranded in Italy. Through social media, she has been posting about her situation. The India govt needs clearance from the Italy doctors certifying whether they have corona. The Doctors have been unable to provide that. The response from the Home Ministry has been unclear. Even the Indian Embassy in Rome has been unresponsive in view of the virus outbreak.

The Indian govt has announced in the Parliament that they will be sending a team of doctors to Italy for testing its nationals for coronavirus to bring them back. But according to Janice, "there are Indians stuck in and around Italy" and she is worried about the viability of the transportation to bring the people together for testing. Amid most flights in Italy cancelled, she has managed to travel to Germany but the contact from the Indian side remains unclear.

Europe

An interesting fact of the matter is that Europe is affected a lot in the viral outbreak. In the top most affected countries, we have Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Switzerland, Norway. This shows that even though developed countries have better health system but the spread there is uncanny.

In Europe, Arsel Hasan an ex student of TU Delft offers us a comparative narrative in the Netherlands. Upon contacting on 12^th March, he maintained that everyone was calm and that people there were quite used to this traditionally. If the symptoms arise, they would visit the health centre. He was also hopeful with the number of recovered cases. However, on the 13^th March, with the amount of new cases of Corona worldwide has created an aura of panic and concern among the people. The Netherlands has 614 cases with 5 deaths (as of 13^th March, 4 PM).

United States

Taking note of the on-going escalation, US President Donald Trump has already banned all foreign travels for the next 30 days from Europe, except the UK. He later clarified, that it was limited to people and not trans-Atlantic trade in goods and barring Americans or US permanent residents - though they would face mandatory quarantines. The US is the 8th most effected country with 1762 cases and 41 deaths (as of 13^th March 4pm). USA has always been a preferred destination of the Indian diaspora and there is also a strong Assamese community presence. In Massachusetts, Assamese student, Jayshree Bhagawati, a PHD scolar from the University of Massachusetts is alarmed with the increasing number of cases in USA. Massachusetts has already declared Corona outbreak as a state emergency. “Our university might be closed till April 1 and following spring break might go for online mode of classes”. She is also concerned as that there's a scarcity of sanitisers in her area but maintained overall there's no panic.

The Indian response

Taking stock of the situation, PM Narendra Modi has banned ministers from traveling abroad. In a tweet, the Prime Minister said the Ministries and States have taken various proactive steps to ensure safety of all. He urged people to not panic and avoid non-essential travel and large gatherings. Government's immediate concern is to contain and control coronavirus, there is no need to panic, Ministry of External Affairs has said.

In a press release by PIB, the govt has especially focused on China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain and Germany and all incoming travellers after 15th February, 2020 shall be quarantined for a minimum period of 14 days. It has also advised incoming-people to avoid non-essential travel and informed that they can be quarantined for a minimum of 14 days on their arrival in India. There are no defined grounds of non-essential travel being laid down. This has created confusion among the incoming Indians who are travelling from countries apart from the banned ones. They are not sure whether they can come back to India leading to further confusion. Shaheen Ahmed, an author/journalist from Guwahati says, "although Australia is not in the names of the countries listed by the Indian government , still it's quite uncertain. I have my research work in India and it's quite an uncertain time right now".

The Centre's efforts in rescuing the 120 Indians from Iran and other countries are commendable. The Assam govt has followed up with the menace by readying isolated beds to the tune of 1000 in Railway Hospitals. "We have deployed medical teams at all airports of the state and screening processes are going on. Till now, as many as 740 passengers have been screened at six airports of the state and some people are put into quarantine," State Health Minister Pijush Hazarika said.

So far, 1.5 million people screened so far at 30 designated airports in India, says Health ministry. The AAI on Twitter has been posting about the efforts made on airports. The APD Guwahati airport has maintained that International passengers screening being done at LGBI Airport Guwahati under dedicated team of doctors and paramedics.

However, a Guwahati resident returning from Singapore sometime back has said, "I was duly tested and checked in Singapore airport and had to submit documents in Kolkata airport as well. But, on arriving in Guwahati early morning, there was no checking".

Although checking has become commonplace, corona signs can develop within the 14-day period which is also the quarantined period. Have the government followed up with people who have travelled from abroad to India even though they had cleared the screening?

Amid the outbreak, global economy has been affected and the S&P BSE Sensex has fallen significantly. As the contemporary world economy leads to a lot of exchanges of people mainly through airports, it has become the country's first line of defense to battle the virus. Thus, in this fight against the contagion, how viable is our first line of defence?

Support Inside Northeast (InsideNE), an independent media platform that focuses on Citizen-centric stories from Northeast India that are surprising, inspiring, cinematic and emotionally relevant.