Chp 799. Day 1 of 21 days Lockdown

I'm sure by now all of you know about the 21 days Lockdown order given by our PM Narendra Modi to combat the highly contagious CoVid-19.

[pic source: pexels.com]

Today is day 1 of the nation-wide lockdown, though technically it is day 4 for those of us in Mizoram as our State Government had already declared a lockdown since Monday, and Sunday was a "Janata Curfew". Think of the past three days' lockdowns as a rehearsal to the real deal that started today.

I have never seen some of the WhatsApp groups THIS active before. I guess most people are just bored at home with nothing to do except socialize online. I check my friend's WhatsApp status every 5 minutes or so now, and there is always a new update every time.

I never check Facebook Stories or post a "story" though, because to be honest, not all Facebook friends are real friends or people I know personally. But when it comes to WhatsApp status, if I have saved your number and you have saved mine, it means I know you pretty well and am comfortable about sharing my status with you, a few exceptions being the gas delivery agency number etc. :D :P

In fact, I have un-muted many of the status I have muted before (if you spam me with 20+ status updates and most of them aren't even that funny, or if you're a guy who keeps posting your selfies, then you go straight to the mute section). I un-muted most people because I was bored. And I'm sure people did the same with me as well, because I usually get around 150-200 views on my WhatsApp status updates, but these past few days, they easily crossed 300 views, lolz!

My sisters and I along with my nieces video-call each other every day too to while away the time.

With Day 1 of the 21 days about to get over, I have decided to spend the next few days doing something useful and worthwhile (more details coming up in my next post) and I'm also trying to blog every day for these upcoming 20 more days.

But the one thing I'm planning NOT to do or refrain from doing, is to forward CoVid-19 related news to the WhatsApp groups I'm in, especially news about infections in Mizoram. Why? Simply because we are already surrounded by enough depressing news. We don't need to keep going further down that dark path.

Take today for example. Mizoram got its first CoVid-19 positive case, and every single WhatsApp group was busy sending out information, most of them contradicting information. People were not only forwarding the names and locality of the person (extremely unethical and illegal), but were also forwarding wrong names!

I decided not to get involved anymore because, frankly speaking, there's nothing you and I can do about it. Doctors and people from the medical staff have told us what to do, and that is to stay indoors and wash our hands all the time, and THAT is what we should be doing. It doesn't matter if there are 100 new patients in Mizoram tomorrow (God forbids that happens), as long as we do as we're told, things will turn out right. Spreading such information is only going to make us more depressed and cause unnecessary panic.

Meanwhile the people who CAN do something about this are the doctors, nurses, lab assistants, technicians, every single medical staff right down to the ambulance driver, the hospital sweeper and gate chowkidar, they're the ones who are fighting this battle for us. The real HEROES in the frontline.

Today, my dear cousin and neighbor Dr. Mahruaii packed up her bags and she along with her colleague Dr. Lalremruata left for State Referral Hospital Falkawn (ZMC) to look after the new CoVid-19 patient. She along with a few selected medical team will be posted in the hospital indefinitely to handle anyone who is CoVid-19 positive. They're not allowed to come home even to take a long nice hot shower.

They're the ones we should be praying for, that they remain safe from the dreaded virus and that they're able to perform their duties properly. It especially pains us a lot knowing she is working at such a high risk environment. This message from my uncle, Dr. Mahruaii's father really brought tears to my eyes.

Apart from these doctors, let's all give a big round of applause to all the nurses and support staff at ZMC too, and keep remembering them all in our prayers.

[Pics source: Ramteii]

By the way, the above photo has been circulating among our Mizo community as my cousin Dr. Mahruaii and her colleague Dr. Lalremruata. Many of my friends are using it in their WhatsApp status too. It really feels good to know that our entire community is supporting them, but actually... those two in the picture above are not them, lolz. The two people above are the nurses who are assisting them, and their names are Muansanga and Angela. Remember those two names too. Remember them in our prayers.

And because of them, their bravery and sacrifice, all is good, so far.

With this, I'll end my post for today, and see you tomorrow for my Day 2 update. Like I said, I got a lot interesting posts coming up. This is also a challenge to all my Mizo blogger friends out there to get back in front of the screen and start blogging again, now that we don't have any excuse to give for not blogging.

Stay safe everyone. God bless.