What Other Priorities? COVID-19, & the Economy!
Let’s look at COVID-19. Yes, at last, the number of active cases is declining, the number of new cases and deaths daily is also dropping, but before we congratulate ourselves, we should ask the families of the 1.2 lakh killed by the novel coronavirus if our government did a good job. They will tell the government to stop bragging about a low death rate.
If you must compare, then compare India with other Asian countries with similarly dense populations, similar climate, similar health infrastructure, and you will see that while India’s death rate is over 80 per 1 million people, in Bangladesh it is just 34, Indonesia 46, Pakistan 30, Nepal 25, Japan 13, in Malaysia just 6 deaths per million, Thailand 0.8, Vietnam 0.4!
Vietnam is a country of 97 million people. Karnataka has just 67 million people but Karnataka has over 10,500 people dead while Vietnam has had only 35 deaths! Only 35 people have died of COVID in Vietnam in eight months. In India, 35 people die due to the virus every 60 minutes!
Now, let’s also look at what the IMF has to say about India’s economy, compared to its Asian neighbours. While India’s economy is shrinking, Bangladesh is set to grow at 3.8 percent, while Vietnam will grow at 1.6 percent.
Yes, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand will show negative growth but India will fare the worst, with a negative growth of minus (-) 10.3 percent.