India, like the rest of the world, is grappling with the ongoing impacts of the Covid-19.
Over the last couple of weeks, daily recoveries of Covid-19 patients improved consistently in terms of absolute numbers even as new cases are rising in an unstoppable fashion.
Due to India’s large population, Covid-19 has far more reaching consequences. With a substantial proportion of the population living below the poverty line there are challenges in practising social distancing, and with non-universal access to water and soap for handwashing, a large number of people with chronic morbidities
Covid-19 puts India in a worrisome situation with the living conditions of the vast majority and the current state of our healthcare system.
With limited coverage and capacity of water supply and sanitation systems, lower health care capacity, larger informal sectors, shallower financial markets it compels the government to strengthen our public health system as so direly needed, not just for the moment but for the long term.
To increase preparedness against the pandemic, especially in a country like India, it is important to invest in core public health infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems.
Press Release pic.twitter.com/YW8BTtMlJ1
— Indian Medical Association (@IMAIndiaOrg) May 13, 2020
Building resilience against future diseases
According to the WHO (2016) estimated that poor WASH practices were responsible for 829,000 deaths from diarrheal disease – equivalent to 1.9% of the global burden of disease. The spread of other diseases, like typhoid and cholera, is increasing precipitously in the developing world when domestic water supply outage occurs.
#Cholera can be linked to the lack of safe water supply, poor sanitation as well as inadequate infection prevention & control practices especially in rural communities.
This video by @globalhealthmed shows us how. https://t.co/aegQgAtPP1 pic.twitter.com/ApxokWUKrk
— NCDC (@NCDCgov) August 10, 2020
- The need is to build resilience against future pandemics, as well as against diseases that afflict the poor in the developing world on a more routine basis. A health care ecosystem should be developed to battle any unpredicted pandemics whenever they breakout so as to action plan that can be implemented in the shortest time frame.
RED ALERT FOR #DOCTORS. pic.twitter.com/SuP8T7M3mh
— Indian Medical Association (@IMAIndiaOrg) July 15, 2020
- Today, more than 80 percent of the entire Indian population still does not have any fundamental health insurance coverage. This is an alarming sign as people are still not aware of the health insurance benefits, where repeated illnesses for family members can trap households in a vicious poverty cycle.
- India has to understand hygiene and cleanliness important. While poor segregation of Covid waste by households has resulted in biomedical waste mixing up with other waste posing a serious health risk for sanitation workers and waste pickers.
As the world battles COVID-19, India’s energetic and innovative youth can show the way in ensuring healthier and prosperous future.
Shared a few thoughts on @LinkedIn, which would interest youngsters and professionals. https://t.co/ZjjVSbMJ6b
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 19, 2020
We all witnessed how migrant workers struggle to reach their homes with a substantial proportion of the population living below the poverty it’s high time that India should prepare itself for pandemics or any unprecedented event. Covid-19 has brought life to still, while there are clouds of fear all overhead but this pandemic surely brings a lesson for a country like India to prepare itself.