By Suresh Kurl

The Question, "what will it take for all levels of governments to ease Covid-19 restrictions and allow us to emerge out of our home-shells," is being talked around these days.  Obviously, people are tired of living in all impacting isolation. People cannot attend birthday or wedding celebrations; cannot even attend funerals of their closed relations. Covid-Cocooning has impacted the public physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and most certainly economically. 

My simple response to the question, what will it take to ease off restrictions is, please do not think of easing them off until everyone living in this province has been vaccinated, especially, until the impact and powers of the new variant spreading in the UK, USA, and few other distant countries, are figured out. Until that time, we should continue to repeat the mantra of keeping 6-feet distancing, double masking, washing and disinfecting hands every time you touch something which has been in a public domain, no crowding of space and certainly no travelling for pleasure. These restrictions, no doubt have isolated us, but they have been keeping us safer and alive as well.   

Then, the question, what should the government know about our South Asian Community living in British Columbia? The answer is in the following questions such as, *how many senior citizens, living in Seniors Homes, have not been vaccinated, *how many seniors, living in their own home, but alone, have been vaccinated, *How many seniors living with their extended families, have not been vaccinated, how many individuals employed in service industries such as home-making, nurses -- working in hospitals and privately, teachers, bus drivers etc. have not received their jabs? 

The answer, what is our South Asian community doing to mitigate COVID-19 lies in the following traditions and practices. 

First, collectively speaking, people in all faiths believe in and practice "Faith Cure." They pray to God and meditate for their physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing.  Actually, all believers pray to God, irrespective of what religion they follow. Faith and God are not mutually exclusive. They are mutually inclusive, actually. 

Not too far in the past, on April 10, 2020, a non-profit organisation named, Angus Reid Institute, based in Vancouver (BC), did a survey in partnership with Cardus, a faith based organization that operates within a philosophical framework, rooted in Christian social thought. It indicates that among 59% of the Canadians, who pray, more than one-in-five say they are turning to prayer more since the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the country. For those, more steeped in faith, prayer has been an important source of relief and comfort in dealing with feelings of isolation, depression and uncertainty. 

Second, a fair number of the South Asians follow vegetarian and/or plant based diet for obvious reasons. They strive to avoid the use of Animal based foods, as they are known to spread diseases such as, E. coli and Bovine flu from ground beef, Trichinosis  from pork,  Salmonella from poultry. Plague from rats, etc. 

All this avoidance has obvious health benefits such as, vegetarian and plant based food reduce cancer risk, prevents type-2 diabetes, lowers blood pressure, decreased asthma symptoms, and gives stronger bone health. These diets are known to be good for heart.  Vegetarians may be up to one-third less likely to die of or be hospitalized for heart disease. 

Then, there is a third category of rules enforced by the Health Department.  I say they are common senses protection rules that must be followed in almost all forms of social living. However, there is no denial that COVID-19 has put a deadlock on all traditional and long-held family and community celebrations, because they are celebrated collectively such as, Diwali and Holi, the spring festival of colours, Baisakhi and Eid. 

Since the beginning of Covid-19, all temples, gurudwaras, synagogues and mosques and cultural Center have suspended their traditions of collective prayers, including sermons. However, the priests of all of these temples still perform daily services by themselves, without the presence of the followers, though individuals can still come within limited time frames. 

The temple priests keeps in touch with the worshipers in the community for emotional and moral support, though he still performs ceremonies and prayers on behalf of those individuals if some one needs special blessings for a family member, who is sick. Not more than ten people are ever allowed for special reasons such as, a wedding or death in the family.  

As a result of the onset of Covid-19, many individuals living in Metro Vancouver have lost their jobs and find it difficult to feed their families. So, a limited number of the temples volunteers go out to distribute food and warm clothes who needs this kind of help called, SEVA. Certain religious centres that offered meditation and yoga practices still offer them, but by zoom only. Thanks to technology. 

Suresh Kurl is a Richmond-based writer.