‌India And The Second Wave Of COVID-19

‌The COVID-19 situation had made a tremendous impact on everyone’s life. Not only in India but also in other parts of the world, the situation is worrisome. It has been more than a year, but the situation is still the same. In India, we already faced a setback in the economy, this Covid has given the worst downfall to every sector.

Since the starting of April, India has reported over 1.37 million cases, bringing the country’s total number of infected people to over 13.5 million. Maharashtra has been the hardest-hit state in the second wave of covid-19, cases in other areas- including the populous state of Uttar Pradesh- are going up. Heart-rending stories are coming in from across India as a second Covid wave creates devastation. Data suggests this wave is proving to be more infectious and deadlier in some states, although India’s death rate from the virus is still relatively low.

‌India has reported lakhs of covid positive cases and also became the second most affected country after the USA. According to a report printed in the ‘Business Standards’ -” There are around 8.5 hospital beds and 8 physicians per 10,000 population ” which demonstrates that our healthcare sector is not equipped for such crisis. On the contrary, the acute paucity of healthcare equipment and the failure of medical facilities do not match up with the growing population.

Stand of government on second wave of COVID-19

Dr. Harsh Vardhan (Union Health Minister) told to media in a press briefing “COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2019 and spread around the world. With the ‘whole of government’ and the whole of society’ approach, we’re able to fight much better than other countries. He blamed the second wave of infections on people’s lack of commitment toward wearing masks and practicing social distancing. “With all the efforts, it was important to teach COVID-appropriate behaviour, for which our PM addressed nation eight to nine times.” “Caller tune set to inform COVID-appropriate behaviour; the AarogyaSetu app gave warning of nearby affected people.”

Dr. Vardhan expressed his deep gratitude to the scientific community for their contribution in developing and testing the COVID-19 vaccine. India’s health ministry says that over 100 million doses of vaccines have been administered since the government began the inoculation program in January. According to Union health secretary, Rajesh Bhushan “India still has over 1.67 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses still available for states and UTs, underlining that the problem is not of vaccine shortage but of better planning.”

Future Challenges

This Pandemic has uncovered the inefficacy of private healthcare and the need for spending and improving public healthcare. In the long term; the government will have to re-examine and excessively boost funding in public healthcare, infrastructure. The manpower crisis afflicting the healthcare sector has to be managed with efficient and targeted training.

What are the lessons that can be learnt from this public health crisis?

This is an opportunity for India to acknowledge the importance of strong public health systems and elevating investment in health for making its health system resilient. The governments need to step up to protect their citizens and people to ensure the safety of all individuals. The country should focus more on improving primary care, health- care infrastructure, and Human Resources for Health. This pandemic could be the much-needed wake-up call for making long-term changes to India’s health system.

Guest Author : Divya Singh
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