From hiding trip details to fighting with authorities, the many Kanika Kapoors of India have derailed our fight against Coronavirus

As Coronavirus cases have suddenly started jumping by leaps and bounds, it seems that we might be moving towards the Community transmission stage as far as the spread of Wuhan virus is concerned. 

Till now, the Modi government seemed to have combated the Pandemic quite effectively and successfully, but now it seems that precautions will have to be stepped up further. But what actually detailed India’s fight against the Wuhan virus? It is the innumerable Patient 31-type Coronavirus carriers and suspects in India who have brought us to the brink of Stage III of Coronavirus. 

While Kanika Kapoor of the ‘Baby Doll’ fame has been drawing fire for giving a major Coronavirus crisis to the top political echelons and possibly having infected hundreds within India, there are many such Kanika Kapoors who have continuously debilitated India’s fight against Coronavirus. 

Jumping quarantines and isolation wards is not a new practice in India. There are innumerable such cases which have been frequently escaping quarantines all across India. Many of them came into contact with hundreds on absconding quarantines putting everyone they met before being detained, at risk of contracting the novel Wuhan virus.  

The behaviour of some of the Coronavirus suspects and afflicted patients has been one of recklessness bordering on sheer hooliganism. One of the cases in Punjab, for instance, has caused a lot of horror among the North Indian state’s health officials. 

A 69-year old woman from Mohali who has now tested for the China-made virus broke the protocol by not reporting to a government facility, had to be literally dragged to a hospital, along with her cousin, whose test results are now being awaited. The entire team of health officials and police officials was thus put at risk by the erratic patient.

Surprisingly, most of the cases are coming from foreign travellers, including Indian citizens coming from abroad. These are people who are wealthy and in most cases more educated than the general public living in India. They were supposed to act responsibly, but they are actually proving to reckless, irresponsible and unreliable.

A couple returning from Dubai were instructed to home quarantine, but they broke the protocol and didn’t follow. They had to be picked up in an ambulance and driven away in presence or police. 

Another shocking case cane from Ulhasnagar in Mumbai, where a 49-year old woman who had tested positive for the novel Wuhan virus attended a satsang with over 1,500 devotees. 

These rogue Coronavirus infected patients coming from abroad have been behaving like Non-Reliable Indians perfectly in line with the acronym- NRIs. Look at these people, who came from Dubai and then bypassed precautions, travelling via train from Mumbai to Jabalpur, putting fellow passengers at risk. But they didn’t stop here, rather they started acting as entitled elitists; creating ruckus in the concerned hospital. 

Also, another reckless Coronavirus patient came from France. He was asked to self-quarantine but he didn’t follow the necessary instructions. He even celebrated Holi and later tested positive for the Wuhan virus. The entire society which is at risk of having contracted the virus from the France-return patient, has now been sealed and asked to stay inside the home.

Similarly, a 49-year old man who returned from the United States did not isolate himself. A 68-year old domestic help working at his house in Mumbai has tested positive for the virus. What poses a major public health emergency is the fact that the 68-year old help resides in a slum where 23,000 people live in a cramped-up area of less than one square kilometre. Social distancing cannot be possibly imposed in such a slum where people are huddled in such close vicinity, triggering a major crisis for the clueless authorities. 

People instructed to quarantine themselves have also been tagged as “self-quarantined”. A “stamp” was put on the left hand of individuals who were 100% self-quarantined so that they could be identified easily. Four such home quarantined people who had flown down from Germany were caught travelling in Garib Rath train in Palgarh en route Surat. 

The issue seems far too complicated to be solved by home quarantines. Initially, people were checked for fever through thermal screening at airports. But the case of asymptomatic patients carrying the virus, spreading it further and long incubation periods before testing positive for the infection shows how careful the foreign travellers should have been. 

Due to long incubation periods, an infected patient may test negative multiple times, before testing positive as is clear from a recent case in Bhutan. But at the same time, such patients could further spread the virus despite testing negative- something that gets further corroborated with the curious case of a Wuhan woman in China. 

Coronavirus, though not immediately fatal, spreads like wildfire. We had just too many ‘Patient 31’- like Coronavirus victims who have unfortunate derailed our enthusiastic fight against the novel virus.