Nearly two years after the Covid-19 pandemic forced us to shut our schools and keep our children at home, we are more or less back to the beginning. As schools reopen after the waning of the second wave of the pandemic, there are reports that teachers and pupils are being infected by the virus. As a result, some schools are being closed temporarily while others are asking the infected to stay at home while the schools continue to operate. As schools fail to conduct regular screening for the virus, there is no telling whether the virus is lying low at the moment or spreading surreptitiously only to explode in the coming weeks. What goes without saying is that the idea of precaution has taken a back seat these days. And that is a tell-tale sign of a possible disaster awaiting us yet again.

As young students remain to be vaccinated, it is already clear who might become the biggest sufferers should there be a third wave of the pandemic. This, therefore, calls for serious contemplation on the part of governments of all levels so that we find a middle ground to balance the need to educate our students and ensure their safety. Once the virus strikes hard, there will be no opportunity to find a middle ground, and schools will have to close down completely for an indefinite period. But those concerned with ensuring the safety of the students even as they allow schools to be opened remain as clueless today as they were during the first wave. The Ministry of Health and Population has said the Moderna vaccine will be administered to children between 12 and 17 years. That is one positive step towards keeping the children safe. However, until all eligible children are fully vaccinated, schools should keep the students away from crowded classrooms, following the hybrid model if the online mode is not entirely possible.

As the federal government shifts its focus from medication to vaccination with the fall in the number of daily infections and deaths, it has mostly excused itself from the responsibility of ensuring optimum adherence to safety protocols. Moreover, political parties of all hues have either recently concluded or are in the middle of conducting their national conventions. And without exception, they are flouting safety norms, bringing together thousands of supporters from across the country to a single place in a show of strength. They have neither the incentive nor the moral standing to ask people to stay at home. Resultantly, the task of maintaining safety precautions at school as well as public places has shifted to the local units. However, the efforts of the local units remain desultory at best. They have their own constituencies to placate, and so have little zeal to conduct a thorough monitoring of the adherence to safety protocols in schools. Like other institutions of the country, they are still in a "wait and see" mode, planning to spring into action only when the worst is at the door.

As past experiences have taught us, the fall in the number of infections and deaths is not to be taken at its face value, for there is every possibility of the curve turning upwards any day. With the percentage of the fully vaccinated hovering just around the 30 mark, there is every possibility of the virus causing great distress in case of a rise. As people gather in huge numbers at political party conventions and marriage ceremonies and various other social functions, they need to remember that the virus is lurking around in disguise, and may appear instantaneously to show the dance of death yet again. It is no time to be lenient when it comes to maintaining safety precautions against the virus.