Covid-19 cases continue to rise. Our natural reaction is to blame it on something or someone. This has been happening for weeks.

We knew from the start that the porous borders would be our biggest challenge as we fight the pandemic. Driven by that knowledge, our priority was to secure the borders and movements therein.

The popular opinion is that there was laxity down and up at the borders which led to rising Covid-19 cases in the country today. Looking at it one way, the argument has some weight. But this isn’t necessarily true.

The Covid-19 hotspots today are in Trashigang and Samdrupjongkhar. We are still investigating the cases and trying to figure how such a rapid spread happened and continues to happen.

Even though the so-called experts are not ready to give us information, we know that we are fighting with new variants of the Covid-19 virus that can spread faster. In this perspective, the game has changed significantly. 

The old measures and tactics may not work. If prevention was our priority, we must now focus on the management of the cases. 

What’s gone is gone; be afraid of what could visit us.

Risks are higher in the bigger population centre, all right, but we cannot forget our villages where health facilities are small and ill-prepared to handle such cases in huge numbers.

What we know is that because we are small we can do a lot of things immediately and efficiently. But we also know that we aren’t doing enough.

Tracing has to be efficient; it cannot fail. We must go full-on with this programme to find out who could be the next victim of the disease. At the same time, we must ensure that arrangements are made to protect the people.

This is not asking too much. We can do it.

Maintaining the health protocols is the best weapon we have against the virus. When the cases shot up in ones and twos, health officials’ stand was that their priority was to control and manage the outbreak efficiently and not finding the source of the outbreak. This will not work. 

We cannot settle for such a bargain or complacency. We must get at the source and manage the spread at the same time.