India hasn’t fared as poorly as many had feared and the lessons learnt will go a long way in handling future health emergencies

Anniversaries are a day we look back and also look to the future. The world remembered one year of the Covid–19 outbreak on January 21, when the first case of the Novel Coronavirus was reported in Wuhan. As it spread to other countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it a pandemic. The Novel Coronavirus was indeed novel and scientists and doctors cannot find the real reason for its spread till today. Now millions of people are getting vaccinated amidst myths and truth about the efficacy of various vaccines doing the rounds of social media.

The Corona story in India began last January with a student who returned from Wuhan. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan took many measures to arrest the spread of the virus. The Narendra Modi Government also imposed a hard nationwide lockdown on March 25. However, the lockdown was not without economic cost to the country.  In line with global measures against the virus, the Government banned domestic and international travel. It also ordered shutting up of shops, malls, cinema halls, schools, colleges, offices and all factories and construction activities. Millions of jobs were lost and the Gross Domestic Product shrank, resulting in a massive economic collapse. The Government started easing the hard lockdown in June and announced many booster doses for reviving the economy. The country recorded the highest number of Coronavirus cases in the world after the US and India reported 10.7 million infections and 1,54,147 deaths. Fortunately, India started its immunisation programme on January 16. Though the inoculation drive began much later than in other countries, our  rate  of vaccination has been higher. This is because India has learnt many important lessons from its polio immunisation drive and is one of the world’s most effective vaccine and drug makers. This is why many countries have already approached it for vaccine supply. According to the Health Minister, nearly two million doses of Covishield vaccine manufactured in India were  dispatched to Brazil and another two million doses were sent to Morocco last week. Half a dozen neighbouring countries, including Nepal and Myanmar, were also supplied with vaccines.

As it happens during any pandemic of this kind, some things did not go right. It was mostly due to poor administrative decisions or the lack of effective communication. For instance, the lockdown could have been handled much better. The handling of migrant labour was another big mess up that led to untold suffering for lakhs of workers and embarrassed the country.

However, as each crisis teaches us something, the important lesson learnt this time was the need to ramp up the crumbling healthcare infrastructure, become self-reliant and prepare the country to deal with future pandemics, which the Government did effectively. The Government used telephone messages to reach out to 117 crore people and urge them to adhere to Coronavirus protocols like social distancing, hand washing and masking up. The message was conveyed fast, even in rural areas.

On the political front, Modi rightly took all the Chief Ministers into confidence, held over six meetings and addressed the nation more than half a dozen times.  The Prime Minister and Chief Ministers worked together, keeping aside their political differences. After all, it is the States which implement central regulations and their support is very necessary.

The Government strengthened the medical staff, converted most hospitals to Covid facilities and spent more on the healthcare sector.

Harsh Vardhan says, “The most important lesson we learnt is that you have to be vigilant all the time and innovative. The Government also simultaneously activated scientists and medical researchers. At one point, almost a million Covid tests a day were being done.”

Telemedicine, too, received a boost and became the new way of getting medical help. It is good that this year’s Union Budget has allocated more funds for the Health Ministry and, for the first time, the Finance Commission also had a separate chapter on health.

Overall, India hasn’t fared as poorly as many had feared at the start of the outbreak, and the lessons learnt will go a long way in handling health emergencies in the future. Many doctors say that we have to live with the Coronavirus as we live with other viruses. Avoiding a future pandemic, developing an effective vaccine and medications as well as reliable data are some of the precautions for India and the world in a post-Corona world.