Topic : Covid 19 Challenges and Lockdown
Introduction
The best defense against any outbreak in the world is a strong health system. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused
a strain on the healthcare systems of all the countries across the world. The rapidly increasing demand on health
facilities and health care workers threatens to leave the health systems overstretched and unable to operate
effectively.
Like other nations, India is also building its arsenal to fight the COVID-19 battle. India’s response has scored a 100
on the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), that aims to track and compare government
responses to the coronavirus outbreak worldwide, rigorously and consistently. But with the number of confirmed
cases reaching 39,980
as on 3rd May, 2020 and death toll reaching more than 1300, Indian healthcare system has a
challenging task at its hand. All the stakeholders are joining the growing battalion of COVID warriors from the
bureaucrats, health professionals, entrepreneurs, regulators like ICMR among others.
In this background, this report analyses the preparedness of India’s health care system on two main parameters
i.e. current status and challenges faced in the three broad domains of governance, infrastructure and technology.
It tries to analyze different approaches which India has adopted and the gaps which remain to fight the COVID-19
battle effectively.
GOVERNANCE
Organisation of Health System
Organisation of Health SystemIndia has a four tier structure of
governing health services in the
country at the following levelsNational, State, District and Block
level. The situation at district and local
level is-
• District wise- segregation- With a
view to managing to COVID-19,
every district of the country has
been divided into:
Hotspot districts, Non-Hotspot
districts with reported cases,
Green zone districts.
• Gram Sabhas are organizing
awareness drives regarding clinical
presentation of the novel CoV
diseases, preventive measures, and
the need for reporting especially in the villages in border districts
Regulation and Guidelines
The government has come up with multiple guidelines to regulate the conduct and use of equipment in the fight
against COVID-19, such as-
• The national guidelines on surveillance, case investigation and laboratory detection of COVID-19 cases.
• The national guidelines on blood transfusions and voluntary blood donation to ensure adequate stocks of
blood & blood components
• Grievance Redressal- An exclusive window was introduced for COVID related grievances on the National
Monitoring Dashboard (https://darpg.gov.in).
o Due to the prompt and round-the-clock follow up, the average disposal time of a grievance has come
down to 1.57 days
Health Expenditure
The most important lesson India has to learn during the present pandemic as well as the past pandemics is
that investing in preparedness can cost little and could save millions of lives.
o Funds earmarked to strengthen
pandemic preparedness plans are
reduced or diverted. The National
Health Policy of India (2017)
articulates increasing investment
in health to 2.5 per cent of the
national gross development
product (GDP) by 2025 from a
meagre 1.15 per cent in 2017.
o High out of pocket expenditure- About 65% of all health expenditure in India (~ 2.5% of GDP) is borne
privately by households.
o Lowest spending on preventive care- As proportion of all healthcare functions (Refer to the infographic)
• Capacity of the national regulatory authority- in promoting indigenous production of equipment, reagents
and other materials and instituting fast-track approval processes for indigenous and imported material and
equipment are needed for responding to the epidemics
INFRASTRUCTURE
Hospitals
Cumulatively, 2144 dedicated COVID-19 hospitals have been identified at both Centre and State level which
includes:
• 755 Dedicated COVID Hospitals (DCH) (with 107830 isolation beds and 14742 ICU beds)- for severe & critical
cases with ventilator support.
• 1389 Dedicated COVID Health Centres (DCHC) (with total of 65916 isolation beds and 7064 ICU beds)- for
clinical moderate cases requiring oxygen support
Health Professions
As per the Government of India, around 1.25 crore
corona warriors are available in the country and
working towards fighting the menace in different
capacities. The numbers of some of these warriors
have been depicted in the infographic.
• Following steps have been taken in this
directiono Database- a portal i.e.
covidwarriors.gov.in has been created as a
master database of healthcare
professionals and volunteers.
o Capacity Building Initiatives-
✓ iGOT e-learning Platform- Launched
by Department of Personnel and
Training, it is a digital platform to train all healthcare and COVID-19 warriors of Indiaiii
.
✓ Training Resources- Online training modules and webinars for ventilator management, clinical
management, infection prevention control, bio-medical waste management, and epidemiology have
been organized.
o Sentinel surveillance- Since February 15, ICMR has initiated sentinel surveillance to detect community
transmission of COVID19.
Education and World Affair 