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
SHIVENDRA SHANDILYA
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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(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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