Ravichandran Ashwin urges people to be 'very scared' in order to tackle COVID-19 battle

Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin took to social media to highlight the grim COVID-19 situation in the country. Ashwin, who left IPL 2021 mid-season due to COVID-19 cases in his family, urged Indians to be "very scared" from the disease in order to tackle the ongoing fight against the pandemic. The off-spinner said that everyone who is urging people to not spread scary stuff on the internet, please be scared because that is how "we can win this fight". Ashwin wrote, "we need to be on war footing defence against the virus". 

On April 26, Ashwin announced that he would be taking a break from IPL 2021 to support his kin & extended family in the fight against the COVID pandemic. Ashwin's decision to leave the marquee tourney mid-way comes amid a steep rise in the number of COVID cases reported all over India as the country battles the second wave of the pandemic. At the same time, the senior officers had also said that he might come to return should the situation improve in the future.

However, a week later, the IPL was postponed indefinitely following the breach of multiple bio-bubbles across teams. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) reported the first cases from inside the bubble as two of their players returned positive results. Delhi Capitals, Chennai Super Kings, and Sunrisers Hyderabad also reported infections the following day, prompting BCCI to suspend the tournament due to safety reasons. 

India's COVID-19 fight

India is battling one of the worst strains of COVID-19, which is contributing to the country's high infection and mortality rates. India registered more than 3,11,000 fresh infections in the last 24 hours. Deaths also remained as high as the country saw more than 4,000 people lost their lives due to the deadly disease. India has been recording more than 1 lakh cases for the past one and a half months. At present, India is the worst affected country in the world in terms of fresh cases and deaths. 

India's primary concern amid the pandemic is the ongoing oxygen crisis in the country, which resulted in thousands of deaths since the start of the second wave. Many people are also finding it difficult to find ICU beds in hospitals across the nation, especially in rural areas, where COVID-19 is raging havoc with the new double-mutant India strain. India is running a vaccination programme for all Indians above the age of 18, however, a huge demand both internally and externally has triggered the shortage of the life-saving drug. 

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