Concerns over the preparedness of hospitals and health centres to tackle the highly contagious Covid-19 virus, which has infected a total of six people across India, has led the government to undertake a thorough review.
Government says no need to panic
Six cases with “high-viral load” were detected during sample testing and these people have been kept in isolation. Of these, two were reported from Delhi and the other from the southern state of Telangana.
“Had an extensive review regarding preparedness on the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet on Tuesday. “Different ministries and states are working together, from screening people arriving in India to providing prompt medical attention.”
With the illness rippling across 47 nations in every continent but Antarctica, concerned citizens especially in the metropolitan cities have emphasized the need for rapid intervention.
“We are concerned not just who, when and how to test for the illness, but how to make sure that working test kits get out to the labs that need them. Right now, it is confined to the cities but we have to be careful,” Madan Jha, an entrepreneur from Noida, a suburb next to Delhi, told RFI.
Panic has now gripped parents of a private school in Noida, which has declared a three-day closure, after it emerged that the children of the Delhi man diagnosed infected by the novel coronavirus study in the school. Shortly after, another school in the area announced that it will remain shut until 9 March.
In the capital alone, amid the Covid alarm, the sale of N95 face masks has soared, triggering a massive shortage of the protective gear and a rise in its price in many areas.
The masks have vanished from medical stores in some places. In many other pharmaceutical shops, customers were seen snapping up hand sanitisers and thermometers.
“It is better to be safe than sorry. Not much is known about the how the new coronavirus transmits yet and we know that the elderly are more vulnerable,” Sarita Dixit, a business executive, told RFI.
Need to tighten up
Though the contagion has not spread in India as in other countries like Iran, Italy and South Korea, a worry that dogs many people is whether India’s health infrastructure equipped to handle emergencies such as the Covid-19, should it flare up.
Some public health experts India is not prepared to tackle health epidemics, particularly given its urban congestion.
“The slum clusters all around the cities, the unhygienic growth, and poor waste disposal system will only aggravate the situation,” Hari Singh, a health expert told RFI.
Therefore many argue that India needs to quickly look at its lab capabilities to ensure effective and quick diagnosis if the virus spreads in-country. At least one hospital per city should be made ready with quarantine facility.
Also a recent survey found that Indian airports may not be well equipped to tackle a widespread impact of Covid-19 as they focus more on substantial expansion programmes.
According to a Moody’s Investors Service report released last month, these airports use most of their cash flow from operations to fund the programmes and rely on debt.
Another survey conducted by Local Circles, a community-led social media engagement platform found that the spread of the Covid-19 disease globally could throw a spanner in the works of Indians’ holiday plans.
For 31 per cent of Indians, travel plans are now contingent on how the situation develops globally. The survey received 40,000 responses in all from participants based across both small and big cities.
Daily news briefReceive essential international news every morning
Subscribe
