Outbreak of COVID-19: The third wave and the people

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Mr. Asad Ali, a medical student of 3rd year MBBS in Sheikh Zayed medical college Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan. He is affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

The fight with the COVID-19 is not yet over. Recently, there has been an outbreak of Third wave of COVID-19 in different countries around the world. The main culprit behind this pandemic is SARS-COVID-19, which is continuously mutating into more dangerous and virulent forms. Thousands of people get infected every single day .The situation in the Asian countries like India and Pakistan, is devastating.

Especially, the Indian hospitals run out of Oxygen supply and beds capacity. Hundreds of people are dying everyday. This clearly indicates that, the people did not pay heed to the mistakes they did last year. People stop paying attention to the public safety measures of wearing mask, keep a social distance of at least 6 feet and washing hands thoroughly. As a result, the infection ratio increases exponentially.

 During the First and second wave, the Governments all over the World did a great job. They imposed lockdowns all over the country. They provide financial support to the people through relief and donation programs. A new work trend “Work from Home” was implemented by all the companies around the world. All the measures undertaken proved to be very effective. This result in the decrease of the COVID-19 cases and the situation started to improve. As the cases of the recent waves continue to decrease, people start believing that this pandemic is over. They stopped following the precautionary measures.

So, the question arises did the people learned the lesson from the first wave and second wave? The answer to this question is simply ‘NO’. The people, first of all did not take the virus seriously. The people kept ignoring the public safety guidelines. The result of this action was catastrophic.

Millions of people conceived this deadly virus and then, they rush to the hospitals. There were limited hospital beds and huge number of people, the hospitals can occupy. People were treated on the roads and old people were not even admitted to the hospitals due to shortage of resources. People were on ventilators due to breathing problems. Millions of people died across the globe due to their irresponsible behaviours.

 Now, the world is facing the third COVID-19 wave. The reason behind this 3rd wave is the stubbornness of the conservation people, who still thinks COVID-19 is nothing but a hoax. The young people are also responsible for this, because they do not follow the rules and precautionary measures that affect the elder persons of their family and surrounding people too. People who conceived coronavirus have a fear of going to the hospital.

One of the problems with this virus is that its symptoms starts to appear within 14 days. Within these 14 days, people are unaware of being COVID-19 positive. As a result, they are subconsciously infecting other people. The World Health Organization (WHO) and Governments around the world are trying their best to spread awareness among people. One day, their hard work will be fruitful and this pandemic will be finally over.

About the author

Asad Ali is the student of 3rd year MBBS in Sheikh Zayed medical college Rahim Yar Khan. He is also a member of IFMSA-PAKISTAN. He has been active in the field recently. He is interested in spreading the quality knowledge to the people. He firmly believes that the Medical community plays a key role in improving public health and awareness. He believes that the first step towards change is awareness.