Another New Year is here again. One more year of pandemic has passed with no relief anywhere in sight. When Covid-19 was declared a pandemic in early 2020 by WHO, most people thought it would be just about one year thing. Adding to the optimism, vaccines were developed in a record time and implemented within a year or less. First dose, second dose and now the booster, but the virus refuses to give in. It is, on the contrary, changing its forms and is becoming resilient by day. The master copy of COVID-19 mutated into Delta in early 2021 and the year is ending with another successful form called Omicron. Numerous other forms would have arisen and disappeared unnoticed and harmless. Who knows what is to come in 2022? While the world is trying to cope up with “new normal” that is mostly characterized by frequent lockdowns – national, regional, local, including extra-ordinary protocols followed in conducting normal businesses, no one is sure about what the new normal would look like some years down the line! Mask has become another piece of essential body cover, at least in public. In a way the face masks in varied designs and colours have turned out to be one great equalizer among people of different strata, as the virus itself has been.
Bhutan has been extra
cautious as always. In spite of just three deaths and that too with
underlying issues already, and most of the time without a single active case in
the country, we have often surprised the world with extra-ordinary precautionary
measures, even if that was at the cost of our own mobility and of course our
fragile economy. With 21 days of compulsory quarantine for cross-border
travelers, tourism, our second revenue earner was the first victim. Hotel
business is on prolonged hibernation (except those few luckier ones who are
surviving or even thriving due to quarantine services). The in-country
quarantine requirement has come as a big relief to the 3-star and below ranked
hotels. Even with reduction in the
international quarantine to two weeks, tourists are not likely to show up. A
portion of the lost revenue is expected to be compensated by the remittances
that continues to grow with our youth continuing to venture out.
After nearly two years of
confinement in Thimphu, the most privileged city in the country, following long
deliberation, my wife Tulsa and I dared cross the green zone last week. Upon
filling out the usual Check Post Management System (CPMS), one uniquely
Bhutanese version of new normal, I cautiously and with utmost vigilance drove
up to the new check-post gate at Sorchen, made entries and received signals
from the RBP personnel there to continue drive down. Just across the
checkpoint, the red zone is marked by small hotels and restaurants apparently
doing brisk business with drivers and commuters waiting for the next move. Some
of them were seen playing carom, others simply chitchatting, with their
vehicles parked at the side. This is the transit point, where the goods are
transferred by the loaders adding that extra burden to the otherwise privileged
consumers up there. To some extent this penalty is also borne by people down
south who often get some of their supplies such as vegetable during summer and
the third country-imported garments and gadgets from Thimphu.
Our second largest city,
Phuntsholing looks deserted, though cleaner, obviously with very little
business. Half of the shops are locked up, perhaps the consequence of the
fronting crackdown. At this time of the year, this town would be bustling with visitors,
practically people from all the nook and corners of the country, including
visitors from across the border. I stopped my car close to the border iron
fence and looked across, only to see few closely standing buildings with billboards,
quiet and perhaps most of the doors shut. There was no one visible, except for a
lean person looking eagerly through the iron bars, as if waiting for some
partner in crime to snub some illegal stuff across for a peanut profit margin!
May be I am being too suspicious… I changed my thoughts quickly. May be he is just
curiously waiting for his business across border to become normal!
After a short rest, we were
dashing across dusty bank of Amochhu (River Toorsa). There is no proper road differentiation
on this flat sandy bank, except for few ‘diversion’ signage that guides the
drivers. The surface is uneven and undulating. Several large trucks carrying
sand pass by as usual and the river embankment work seem to be going on
forever. We passed through the new housing colonies for people rescued from
across the border some one year ago, a Royal gift. You drive pass this terrain
and across the beautiful bridge on the Toorsa only to enjoy the calm of
beautiful villages, forests and gentle curves, overseeing the Indian plane. Our
first destination was Mecheytar (Khandothang), our first winter home.
Weather is pleasantly warm
here. At the surface, the life of the
villagers here seem very normal. Young people are busy making some money
through odd jobs that are easily available due to absence of cheap labour from
across the border. Some people do express their disappointment about the inter-zone
quarantine. Largely this is an accepted new normal for the people here but are unhappy
for not getting the quarantine facilities instantly. I am told that these limited
facilities are heavily subscribed. It is everyone’s hope that this one week
quarantine will be done away after all eligible people get their booster!
Globally countries are
dealing with new waves of pandemic differently. There are national and
localized lockdowns, night curfews, travel bans and many more all over the
world. But gradually people are complacent and even protesting against the
restrictions. Some smart scientists are making wise guess about the newest
variant that it is milder in its virulence even though it is spreading like a
wild fire. The virus is likely to stay around in its evolved forms with varied degree
of virulence for some time to come if not forever. WHO optimistically says if
all the countries in the world vaccinate 70% of its population by mid-2022, the
pandemic status will get downgraded to endemic or something milder!
Amidst the emergence of
millions of COVID experts, a layman can also say quite definitely that there
are a lot of empirical data on the nature of this virus and the experience of
dealing with its impact, that should help to make reasonable decisions on dos
and don’ts, as we also continue living our lives. For sure, we can’t continue the
way we were in pre-covid times nor can we continue the way we are now in, forever.
It is time that the policy makers take some calculated risks and make bolder decisions
to give social life a chance and put back the economic development on track. It
is time to test the human courage and resilience against this invisible enemy. Whether
we like it or not, as the world decided to move on, a small country like ours
will also have to make hard choice very soon.
Until then, goodbye to yet
another pandemic year of 2021 and a warm welcome to the NEW YEAR 2022.
Dorokha, January 01, 2022
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