Is the month of May going to be worse than April, wonder people on social media

So, here's what one gentleman wrote on Facebook: "Don't end up importing electric crematoriums. We have a window for three weeks to plan. Daily deaths are going to peak to 10K. Active cases are 30 lakh and we are going to add a minimum 30 lakh in another 10 days. At present death rate, we are going to see 60K deaths soon added to the total. This stat in all likelihood is inevitable."

His name is Rama Raju and he's been aiming to get a Covaxin vaccine but gave up the hunt after all his efforts spelled to naught. Now, resigned to Covishield, he's still unsure because he's not got a "date" and "vaccination centre." That he is 45+ should tell you another story about the vaccination drive. "Kind of patchy" comes to mind. Fact is there's a lot to achieve, and a lot left to chance. Our population is such a huge number, even to get that coveted 'herd immunity' will take a humongous effort.

In the meantime, think of COVID-19 dead, in the tens of thousands. Inevitable. April 29 over 3,000 souls bid goodbye to over 3,000 wracked bodies and the overall death count was closing the gap with United States. This time last year (2020), the US was Ground Zero for Covid-19 deaths, with New York taking the Covid cake. Today, India is the Covid epicentre and persons like Rama Raju are speaking of 10K deaths in a matter of days.

So plan for extra cemeteries and make-shift open space cremations. And this was asked to a vascular physician based in Delhi: "The nature of the virus is such that entire families are getting infected by just staying at home. How do you deal with such a situation?" The doctor replied, "The intramural spread, which is the spread of the virus inside a household or a closed space, is perhaps the most difficult to control... So at the slightest suspicion of a person developing an upper respiratory infection or fever, the patient must wear a light surgical mask if he or she is not breathless, and others around should wear an N95 mask."

According to this vascular expert, COVID-19 is an air-borne infection along with being a droplet infection. He says aerosols are produced when speaking and they linger in the air like a cloud. Especially, these summer days when air conditioners swirl the air throughout the day and night. The virus loves the A/C and thrives like a rabbit, and hangs around depending on the viral load of the infected person. The crux of the gist is, you are not safe for people around you if you have caught the infection. You are a morbid super-spreader to be avoided like the plague!

They'll soon change the saying to "to be avoided like the Covid." Things are changing, we're changing, our worldview is changing and our language is changing. Yet nothing is changing. The exit polls the other evening were mute, but under the skin there was a bubble of how it's going to be on May 2. The exit polls spoke in clear terms for all the states, except for West Bengal, where the results are hanging by a cliffhanger! Will Mamata Banerjee win, or will Amit Shah do a Kung Fu Panda?

"Don't know" is the answer. Assam, the exit polls say, will go the BJP way. And Tamil Nadu to the DMK with only the second Stalin ever to rule a State! Seems like the BJP's "South Dreams" will remain stillborn. Especially in Kerala, where the exit polls say Pinarayi Vijayan will refuse to exit or to make way for the Congress, and will eviscerate the BJP. Vijayan, says a TV anchor with clairvoyance will grow bigger than the party, but was told not to spread un-Commie stuff, communists nowhere get bigger than the party. Anywhere!

But there have been legal luminaries who have gotten bigger than the bodies they served. Like Soli Sorabjee, twice India's Attorney-General, who passed away April 30, yet another of the COVID-19 dead, one more addition to Rama Raju's total death count in the coming days -- 'Cogito ergo sum', which translates to "I think, therefore I am." Today, because of rampaging COVID-19, Soli Sorabjee, one of India's keenest legal minds, is no longer 'Cogito ergo sum'.

Meanwhile, in West Bengal, a Trinamool candidate for the assembly elections died of COVID-19 and his widow has charged the deputy election commissioner of West Bengal with "murder", lodging an FIR in the state. Will the charge stick? If it does, can Sorabjee's family lodge a similar case, but against whom? How about against Delhi CM or/Delhi Lt. Guv? Maybe against PM and/or Home Minister? Lots of people are saying lots of people have COVID blood on their hands, and Rama Raju has spoken on Facebook of what's in store. Lots and lots of COVID dead, and not enough crematoriums. The daily death count will likely peak to 10K a day.

(IPA Service. Views are personal)