THD NewsDesk, NEW DELHI: The Health Ministry of India on 6th August, 2020, acclaimed that all Indians have access to Covid-testing labs within three hours of travel. Dr Harsh Vardhan, the Union Health Minister, said that there is an increment in the number of Covid-testing labs, with just one in January to 1370 in August. While the daily number of COVID-19 cases in the Indian hospitals has magnified to almost 35 times, he also added that an Indian citizen could access at least one COVID-19 testing laboratory in the brief travel time of 3 hours.
Indubitably, the pandemic of COVID-19 has brought with itself the most unfavourable circumstances for a lot of people. Correspondingly, it has also driven home the importance of efficient healthcare and public welfare arrangements, operations, and functioning in a country.
India, currently facing one of the worst hits from the novel coronavirus, has finally discerned the connotation of the same.
“From the count of 1 laboratory in the month of January, the Covid-19 testing facility has commenced in as many as 1370 Indian Covid-testing laboratories today. The initiation has enabled the people to access at least one laboratory within the reach of three hours of travel time”, said Dr Vardhan.
He said that India had picked up its weapons and shield as soon as China confirmed the presence of the virus with the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the 7th of January earlier this year.
“India’s proactive and graded multi-level institutional response to Covid-19 made it possible to have very low cases per million and deaths per million in spite of having a high population density and low fractional GDP spending and per capita doctor and hospital bed availability as compared to other developed countries,” the minister said.
In a virtual conference with the World Health Organisation (WHO) regional directors of South-East Asia on Thursday, Dr Vardhan mentioned that India is acting upon the situation efficiently. He said that India’s “proactive and graded multi-level institutional” response to Covid-19 made the curbing of the pandemic to this extent possible, with a minimal number of cases and deaths per million.
The objective of the meeting focused on maintaining public health services, programs, and campaigns for the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
He added they are taking lessons from the past, like the outbreak of avian influenza, H1N1pdm09 influenza, and Zika. These pandemics rendered institutional memory in drafting, designing, and curating the containment and management based on the “whole of government” approach.
Dr Harsh Vardhan, meeting with the officials, said that the essential lockdown due to the spread of the novel coronavirus was optimally utilized. Prompting a swift development in healthcare and medical infrastructure throughout the country.
“India’s proactive and graded multi-level institutional response to Covid-19 made it possible to have very low cases per million and deaths per million in spite of having a high population density and low fractional GDP spending and per capita doctor and hospital bed availability as compared to other developed countries,” the minister said.
The stem of the ever-increasing mortality was identified and determined by the telemedicine facilities at AIIMS, New Delhi which assisted and facilitated the quick and impactful intervention movement. This move notably repressed the mortality rate from a peak of 3.33% on June 18th to a gradual reduction to 2.11% recorded on August 3rd, 2020, the statement of the minister recorded.
It is overwhelming to see that immediate intervention took place, and steps were initiated to curb the pandemic by the central and state governments. The initiation of doubling the number of Covid-testing labs overnight proved to be a massive achievement. With this, the hopes of better times to return also rise amongst the population.
SOURCE: Times of India