The bright spot

Expansion of public health care will help fight the pandemic

India is now the third-worst affected nation because of the pandemic with a total of about 700,000 reported cases. In the process, the country has surpassed Russia and is only behind the US, with about 3 million cases, and Brazil, which has over 1.6 million. Since the number of new cases continues to rise and the infection curve has not flattened to the extent desired, it is worth reviewing where India stands in its fight against the pandemic. While the battle to control Covid-19 has been marked by several failures, there are also some notable areas of success.

The government in the beginning clearly did not anticipate the possible spread of infection and misread the situation when it predicted containment in 21 days. This is also perhaps the reason why India imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, and that severely affected economic activity. But as the spread of the virus continued, the lookdown had to be extended. Since most businesses were not permitted during the initial phases of lockdown, it resulted in massive unemployment and a large reverse migration of labour. The government opened up limited rail service after millions of migrants started trekking back home — some lost their lives on the way. In terms of direct action in containing the spread of Covid-19, testing in India has remained inadequate. For instance, in the national capital, the positivity rate went over 30 per cent last month. It has come down to a more reasonable level after testing was ramped up. India still needs to rapidly increase its testing capacity. The recent controversy around an impossible deadline for a made in India vaccine launch is another example of systemic shortfall in India’s response to Covid-19.

However, there are some notable successes worth highlighting. For instance, one is the rapid expansion of public health care facilities to treat patients — even as private hospitals have misused the opportunity to do price gouging and private testing centres have not contributed much. The new massive facility built by the Defence Research and Development Organisation in the Delhi cantonment in 12 days is one such example. Delhi has also set up its biggest Covid-19 care centre in Chhatarpur with a capacity to house 10,000 patients. There are several other such successes — including the rapid increase in producing masks, personal protective equipment, BiPAP machines, etc. In the general gloom of becoming the country with the third-largest number of Covid-19 cases, this may be the one bright spot on the map. India would do well to capitalise on this and augment its fight against the pandemic.

India’s recovery rate is improving, and augmenting medical facilities would help contain the number of deaths. As the experience so far suggests, timely medical attention can significantly reduce the possibility of death. Even as India has improved its response, it is going to be a long-drawn battle till a safe vaccine or medication is available for mass use. In the meantime, the country needs to ramp up testing. This will not only reduce the pressure on medical infrastructure but also allow a faster and durable resumption of economic activity.