Fighting the Corona Third Wave
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Fighting the Corona Third Wave

Learning from the past experiences especially the havoc of the second wave of Corona, the Central Government should invest its resources wisely in fighting the Invisible virus

Post by on Thursday, June 24, 2021

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SHIVENDRA SHANDILYA

 

India ramped up the vaccination after the central government regained the autonomy of procurement of vaccines and provided it free to citizens above 18 years of Age. The positivity rate of corona also dipped below 5% giving sigh of relief. The Scientist community are predicting the Third wave and claiming it to be Inevitable. Learning from the past experiences especially the havoc of the second wave of Corona, the Central Government should invest its resources wisely in fighting the Invisible virus.

 

Oxygen Audit and Supply Management

The Supreme Court constituted National Task Force for audit of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) to the start and it’s Optimization of allocation. The Task force Includes Bhabatosh Biswas, former vice-chancellor of West Bengal University of Health Sciences, Kolkata; Devender Singh Rana, chairperson of Board of Management, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi; Devi Prasad Shetty, chairperson and executive director of Narayana Healthcare in Bengaluru; Gagandeep Kang, professor, Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore in Tamil Nadu and Others .The blend of health professionals and bureaucrats will definitely benefit the monitoring of The medical oxygen supplies. Indian railway played a pivotal role through Oxygen Express. The transportation of LMO was a very challenging task in the second wave. The supply chain management needs a relook so that farthest areas can fulfil their demand in a limited time.

 

 

Life Saving Drugs

The unavailability of recommended drugs during treatment of Covid-19 in hospitals made the people run pillar to post to save their loved ones. Many of people either given duplicate medicine or forced to buy Remdesivir, & other medicines at skyrocketing prices. The double hit of Black fungus & yellow fungus beards the similar result of black marketing and non-availability of the required essentials drugs.

 

The Government of India should provide these medicines through Jan Aushadhi Kendra. The Number of Jan Aushadhi Kendra is nearly 7800 spread all across India. This step can ensure easy medicine availability at reasonable cost.

 

 

Hospital Beds & Rapid Vaccination

Data from National Health Profile–2019 states that there are a total 7, 13,986 Government hospital beds available in India which amounts to 0.55 beds per 1,000 populations.  States like Bihar amount to 0.11 beds per 1,000. The doctor per 1000 population is very low in India. Total ICU beds in India are less than 1 lakh. Under these circumstances, we had fought Two Waves of Coronavirus in Last One and half year. Earlier, GoI under the PM CARES fund hadadded Thousands of Oxygen Ventilation & installation of additional 162 dedicated Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) Medical Oxygen Generation Plants.

 

State government should boost up the Primary Health Centres. Health is a state subject under Schedule Seven of the Indian Constitution. So rather than depending heavily on Centre for assistance, State government should fortify the health Infrastructure in a very limited time to enhance better service to the people.

 

India made a record by vaccinating over 87 lakh people on International Yoga Day. If the government successfully achieves vaccination of double dose to the eligible population with these rates subjected to production of vaccine, then it will act as a first-hand shield against hospitalisation and results into less Covid19 fatality.

 

Skilling /Upskilling Frontline warriors

In India, the lack of manpower during the health emergency situation in addition to fragile health infrastructure had fuelled more woes during this pandemic. We have lost many Covid-19 frontline warriors in the form of doctors & health professionals. However, on 18th June, PM Modi launched ‘Customized Crash Course programme for Covid 19 Frontline workers. This training programme would be conducted in 111 training centres spread over 26 states. The training will be imparted to Covid warriors in six customised job roles namely Home Care Support, Basic Care Support, Advanced Care Support, Emergency Care Support, Sample Collection Support, and Medical Equipment Support. This will include fresh skilling as well as upskilling of those who have some training in this type of work. This is a welcome step by Government to mitigate the shortage of skilled professionals.

 

As of now, the new mutated variant of Corona virus namely Delta Plus and its repercussion seems unpredictable. Now the unlocking process has started all across states resulting in more human mobility. Testing and Tracing remains the utmost important Job for Administration. Meanwhile, Covid Appropriate Behaviour remains the only key to deter the menace.

 

 

(Author Is a Ph.D. Research Scholar of Public Policy & Public Administration at Central University of Jammu. He can be reached at: shandilya.shivendra@gmail.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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