Covid-19 infection is at an all-time high level in Bengal now. During the first wave, the daily infection figure touched the 4,000 mark and then went down. But this time its upward trend is not likely to stop even after crossing 4,000. On 8thth April, the figure of daily infected stood at 2,783. On 9th, it was 3,648. On 10th, the daily figure stood at 4,398 on 10th. It is going on like a galloping train this time and is likely to jump up like this for some more time. But no one is concerned.
The Bengali new year falls on 15th April, and before that comes the ‘Chaitra Sale’. The shop-owners try to clear their stock during the sale by giving high rebates. This is an opportunity for the buyers to get things cheap. This Sunday was the last Sunday before the sale ends, and the people thronged the markets in Kolkata and all other major cities of Bengal. Most of the people in the markets were without masks, and there was no question of any distancing.
“The fear of Covid-19 has subsided,” says a police officer of Kolkata who is not entitled to speak on the record. “On Saturday 1,109 people were infected in Kolkata. But this time the number of people slipping to a stage that needs hospitalisation is proportionately less. So, people feel the disease has lost its virility, and they don’t care anymore.”
In the line for voting, in many booths, people are not maintaining the required distance either. According to Election Commission guidelines, the voters are to be provided with gloves so that the EMMs remain clean. But a very high rate of voter turnout is making such guidelines redundant at many places. According to a school teacher who worked as a polling officer in the first phase of the election, his booth had 951 voters and they were provided with about six hundred gloves. But finally, 872 voters came to exercise their democratic rights. So, after a time the voters could not be provided gloves.
Chaitra Sale will be over next Thursday. But the election season will go on till the 29th of this month, and the last campaign day according to the new direction will be the 26th of this month. It means the rallies and roadshows will go on for another fortnight. No one knows where the daily infection rate will reach by then.
(The author Diptendra Raychaudhuri is a senior journalist based in Kolkata. He has a wide range of experience in covering West Bengal politics and has authored several books)