COVID-19: A look at how India has ramped up health infrastructure

The coronavirus pandemic has forced everyone to work from home and turned lives upside down. India’s digital preparedness has helped to a large extent but this epidemic also exposed shortcomings in the healthcare sector.

So, how has India faced this challenge in the past one year?

In India, the first case was reported in Kerala in January last year. The government announced the Janata curfew on 22 March and complete lockdown restrictions kicked in from March 24.

Testing Labs

In January 2020, there was only one lab suitable for testing Covid-19 in the country. Within 6 months, by June 24, 2020, a total of 1000 labs have been recognized for testing. At the same time, there are a total of 2397 corona testing labs in India till February of 8 months out of which 1222 are government centers and 1175 are private labs. At the same time, there are a total of 1371 labs for RT-PCR test. A total of 21,68,58,774 samples have been tested so far. On February 28, 2021, there were 6,27,668 lakh tests.

India is now one of the largest exporters of vaccines worldwide. So far, 1.43 crore people have been vaccinated. In the new phase of the vaccine, priority is being given to the elderly and those above 45 years of serious illness. As of March 1, 1.07 crore people have recovered. The recovery rate of patients has gone up to 97.07% while the death rate from Covid-19 is 1.41%.

India had crossed the figure of 50 lakh corona cases in September 2020 itself. So far, the total cases in India are 1.11 crore whereas vaccination has been done to 1.43 crore people, i.e., vaccination is now more than the speed of corona. In September itself, more than 95,000 Corona cases were also registered in a single day while on February 28, 15,510 new cases were reported. Of this, 85 percent of the cases are in 6 states – Maharashtra and Kerala have the highest number of new infections.

Speed ​​in PPE Kit

In addition to hospitals in the Healthcare Infra of India, the problem of PPE kit was also revealed. There has been improvement on this front also. According to ICMR, 157 commercial RT-PCR kits have been approved by February 26 while a total of 22 antigen-based rapid test kits have been approved by 17 February 2021.

India is now self-sufficient in PPE kit manufacturing with more than 5 lakh kits being manufactured daily.

Using digital modes

The Aarogya Setu app was used to ensure people adhere to the protocols while the Co-Win portal is being used for the  vaccination drive.

Biggest Vaccination Drive

In this new phase of vaccination, about 10,000 hospitals listed under Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY (Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana), 687 hospitals covered under CGHS and registered private hospitals under health insurance scheme of state governments were used in the second phase of vaccination. Will go According to the list released by the government, 7936 PMJAY-vaccine will be installed in private hospitals at a maximum fee of Rs 250.

The effect of awareness and hard work of Healthcare Workers is that now the importance of the mask has gone door-to-door across the country and India has been included in the category of vaccine exports worldwide.