News Brief
Health Infrastructure Ramped Up 45-Fold Against Possible COVID-19 Third Wave, Centre Tells SC
- Amidst the apprehensions about a third wave, the centre, as well as the state governments, are cautious to not repeat the mistakes made after the first wave peaked in September 2020.
Supreme Court of India (Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
The union government told the Supreme Court on Sunday (20 June) that the nation's health infrastructure has increased up to 45-fold to brace successive waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the experts have opined that a third wave of the pandemic can hit India by October. However, they say the third wave will be more controlled thanks to the vaccination drive as well as some degree of natural immunity from the second wave.
Amidst the apprehensions about a third wave, the centre told the apex court that the total cumulative vaccine coverage was 27.23 crore doses as of 19 June. The total cost, including payment, advance and operational cost, had been Rs 9,504.315 crore.
Currently, an average of 33 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine are being administered per day in India. Close to 27 crore doses of vaccines have been administered till now, covering 23.4 per cent population overall, while over 40 per cent population above age 45, with at least one dose. Around 50 million people in India have been fully vaccinated.
Worldwide, India (total population 1,380 million) ranks third in terms of the doses administered (around 270 million) and second in terms of the number of people fully vaccinated (50 million).
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda said that India will have 257 crore COVID vaccine doses by December to take up double-dose vaccination of people in full swing. Union Home Minister Amit Shah today (21 June) said the central government has decided to increase the pace of vaccination against COVID-19 in July and August.
The union government represented by Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor-General Aishwarya Bhati further told the apex court that:
The total intensive care unit (ICU) beds had increased by 45-fold, from a baseline of 2,500 to 1,13,035.
The total isolation beds (excluding ICU beds) had climbed 42-fold, from 41,000 to 17.17 lakh.
The number of category one COVID-19 dedicated hospitals had increased 25-fold from 163 to 4,096, while the number of category two dedicated COVID-19 health centres and category three dedicated COVID-19 care centres were 7,929 and 9,954, respectively.
Oxygen-supported beds had multiplied 7.5-fold, from 50,583 to 3.81 lakh.
The government also pointed out the "phenomenal" increase in the testing capacity, with 2,621 labs performing 22 lakh tests daily currently as opposed to 30,000 tests a day in April 2020.
Isolation railway coaches grew from zero to 5,601.
Over 1.5 lakh health personnel had been engaged — 7,024 medical officers, 3,680 specialists, 35,996 staff nurses, 18,649 MHWs, 1,01,155 community volunteers, Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) and ASHA facilitators, and 48,453 other support staffs.
Insurance coverage was given to 22.12 lakhs health workers, including ASHAs fighting COVID-19.
More than 1,000 additional pressure swing adsorption (PSA) plants at the cost of Rs 1,137 crore were approved to be set up in various public health facilities across the country. This would take the tally to 1,213 PSA plants funded through the PM CARES Fund.
The ceiling limit for the expenditure of the State Disaster Response Fund has been increased from 35 per cent to 50 per cent in 2020-21 to finance COVID-19 containment measures.
The government data shows that last year itself, between 21 April and 22 September, the number of oxygen-supported beds increased by 297 per cent; ICU beds by 143 per cent; and ventilators by 151 per cent.
However, the data also shows that after India passed the peak of the first wave in September 2020 and the cases started declining, the efforts to strengthen the health infrastructure slowed down.
In April 2020, the Government of India approved a Rs 15,000 crore 'COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package' to boost India's public health infrastructure sector. The state governments were to use this to increase the number of oxygen-supported beds, ICU beds and ventilators.
Reportedly, between 22 September 2020 and 28 January 2021, the oxygen supported beds saw a fall of 42 per cent, and the decline in ICU beds and ventilators was 11 per cent and 42 per cent, respectively. Different state governments have different records in this regard. In at least seven states, the health infrastructure kept improving, in others, it remained constant. But in most cases, it declined.
However, this time around, the government seems to be prepared for a third wave of the pandemic.
The union government has warned states to step up the COVID-19 vaccination and open up lockdown in a "carefully calibrated" manner. If COVID-appropriate behaviour is not followed, then the third wave can hit the country in six to eight weeks, it said on 19 June.
The states have been recommended to strictly follow the "very crucial" five-step strategy - COVID-appropriate behaviour, test, track, treat, and vaccine.
States like Tamil Nadu are already ramping up infrastructure in paediatric wards and creating additional bed capacity, since some experts have said that the third wave can be particularly dangerous for those below 18 years of age.
In Karnataka, the government has set up a task force to create additional pediatric wards and COVID-19 care centres for children across districts.
In Maharashtra, the Chief Minister has instructed officials to ensure the availability of medicines and hospital beds in anticipation of the third wave that is predicted to hit the state in two to four weeks. "We have learned lessons from the first and second waves," Thackeray said.
On the other hand, following experts' suggestions that any laxity may lead to serious consequences, the Jharkhand government is on high alert to contain a possible third wave of the pandemic.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, calling the chances of a third COVID wave "quite real", has asserted that his government is preparing on a "war-footing" to tackle it.
Uttar Pradesh government led by Yogi Adityanath, has also said that it is well prepared to tackle a third wave of the pandemic.
"The moment experts predicted that a third COVID wave may hit the country, UP government has started making arrangements for 50 isolation and 50 ICU beds, and 10 beds for holding area. We have also done manpower training," state Finance Minister Suresh Khanna recently said.
Uttar Pradesh administration plans to identify and vaccinate parents of children below 10 years. Since 15 June, the government is distributing the children free medicine kits consisting of cough syrup and chewable tablets through its network of ASHA and other frontline workers.
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