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Covid-19 cases emerging again at an alarming rate in European nations resulting in lockdowns being reimposed

With the USA and India being the worst-hit countries in the world by Covid-19, Europe has been emerging as a new hotspot for the disease outbreak after having controlled the situation once before. The number of fresh cases of Covid-19 recorded daily has been increasing at an alarming rate, regarding which the national authorities have introduced some new restrictions to control the outbreak.

As a matter of fact, last week the total number of cases recorded in the European Union and UK together was higher than the daily count of Covid-19 cases in the USA alone. On an average, Europe has been recording 80,000 fresh cases daily as per the recent data.

After the national lockdown restrictions had been lifted in Europe during the summer, the number of cases recorded daily had eventually fallen. However, recently these numbers have been on a rise, making the situation uncontrollable.

European nations like the Netherlands, Portugal, the UK, Germany, France, and Italy have observed a continuous rise in daily cases for the past one month. Last week, the majority of the European nations recorded the maximum number of Covid-19 cases in a day particularly on October 14 and 15.

As a consequence, renewed versions of a nationwide lockdown have been announced in the UK and other European countries to avoid facing another massive outbreak, which would worsen the situation.

Curfews have been implemented in Paris and other cities in France. Italy has made it necessary for its residents to wear masks at all times, when outside their homes. It was initially the worst-hit nation by Covid-19 during the early months of the pandemic. It is also considering banning parties and large gatherings to practice social distancing. Madrid, the capital of Spain has been locked down completely.

In addition to this, revised restrictions have been implemented in London, UK. Restaurants and bars have been closed until further notice in Berlin, Germany. Bars have also been shut in Brussels, Belgium. In Ireland, restaurants, and bars are only allowed to serve food and beverages outside with certain restrictions, along with introducing a ban on social gatherings.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness.

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Intranasal vaccine candidate for Covid-19 to be introduced by the Serum Institute of India

Several vaccine candidates are undergoing final clinical trials for Covid-19. In India, three vaccine candidates are under clinical trials at present, although none of them are of intranasal type. Harsh Vardhan, the Union Minister said on Sunday, October 18, that as no such vaccine has been introduced yet, the Serum Institute of India is launching a new intranasal vaccine for Covid-19, which is currently under production.

He gave the example of Flumist nasal spray which is an influenza vaccine that is sprayed into the nose. A similar approach has been introduced by the Serum Institute of India, which is known as Codagenix CDX 005 which is a live attenuated vaccine to work against SARS-CoV-2.

This discussion took place on Vardhan’s social media platform where he answered some questions related to the Covid-19 vaccine as a part of the ‘Sunday Samvaad’. He said – “Pre-clinical animal studies have already been completed and Codagenix of Serum Institute of India, expects to initiate a phase 1 clinical, first in human trials, in the United Kingdom by the end of 2020. Further, Serum India plans to undertake clinical developments of this vaccine candidate in India.”

The minister further added that apart from this, Bharat Biotech allied with the Washington University School of Medicine, with which they will be introducing an intranasal vaccine for Covid-19, will be responsible for its production and marketing.  The phase I clinical trials for this vaccine will take place at St. Louis University in the USA , in its Vaccine and Treatment evaluation unit while the later stages of clinical trials will take place in India.

Another important detail of the Covid-19 vaccine given by Vardhan was that the vaccine will be available for the pediatric age group as well, as the clinical trials have been conducted on people in the age group of 12 to 65 years.

As per a statement given by Dr. K Srinath Reddy, founder of the Public Health Foundation of India, it is too early to predict the results of vaccines that are still in their phase I and phase II clinical trials. He also said that the concrete data on the vaccine’s efficiency and safety can only be made available after it has entered and completed its final phase III trials.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness.

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Impact of COVID on SOPs of the healthcare sector and what changes has it brought in them

COVID-19 an infectious and contagious disease is affecting individuals in different ways. It transmits through droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It may also be transmitted if one touches any contaminated surface. The outbreak of the virus was first identified in China in early December 2019 (hence the suffix, COVID- “19”) and was declared a pandemic in March 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). With more than 6 species of the virus that have been found, it is still spreading rapidly and it has been almost 10 months since it was first found to have jumped to the human population. Coronavirus disease has infected approximately 35 million people out of which around 1.03 million people have died until now, all over the world. If we see the charts of India, 6.4 million people have been infected, with more than 100K deaths. While these figures are horrifying, the good news is that the recovery rate for COVID19 has been continuously growing and India currently stands at 83.7% recovery. The virus has not gone away completely and it does not even seem to disappear in the near future, but it is definitely waning.

The virus has challenged humanity through health and psyche. The lockdown of people, trade, businesses, and countries on a larger scale has affected the whole economic status and population dynamics of the world. Furthermore, with the accidental (as it is believed to be) arrival of this new novel virus, the biggest challenge in terms of operational adjustments for the healthcare sector came into the scene. Covid19 has been pushing the limits of the hospital care units since the very beginning. As the absolute cure for the disease has not been found yet, it has been suggested from the very start to stay indoors, wear masks, keep everything sanitized and maintain social distancing which has also now become a standard operating procedure (SOP) in our daily life. But, everyone is not following what is being suggested. People amidst lockdown have been seen coming out of their houses, not maintaining social distancing, standing in groups, and even protesting for various reasons.

What happens when a virus that is spread through human touch, sneezes, cough unrolls in the world’s second-most populous country which also has one of the highest population density? Let alone the diseased person, even the doctors, healthcare experts, and leaders are worried about the dangerous implications of this combination. It has been recently found in a study that around 60% of cases in India have been caused by Superspreaders who cause infections to a larger number of people with respect to others. Still, our healthcare workers did not fall prey to fear and stepped out and became the frontline warriors to fight the novel virus. As no-one was prepared for it healthcare too fell short on many things. The number of beds in hospitals, PPE kits for healthcare professionals, testing kits, medicines, and even the number of professionals was found to be not sufficient to tackle the situation. This led the government to make sure to get and pool enough resources and also ensure the utmost protection for our corona-warriors so that we can get through this crisis in the best possible way out. Even in this situation, many states whose governments are politically in the opposition standpoint did not get enough PPE kits from the center.

Given the current changes in healthcare delivery and the increased burden on healthcare facilities in meeting the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, standard operating procedures (SOPs) play a vital role to hinder and limit virus transmissions. In addition to the healthcare sector, the public also has to follow the given rules so that we can prevent ourselves from contracting the virus. The guidelines given under the SOPs have seen a drastic change with the unprecedented arrival of this virus and continue to see amendments in the near future as well. Besides ensuring that the healthcare institutions are safe, there has been the introduction of telemedicine, isolation centers, PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) kits, and many other new administrative measures in the hospitals.

Accompanying the healthcare sector, the pharma sector has faced the jolts too. The Indian pharma sector (third-largest in the world) is an important component of the global healthcare infrastructure and is instrumental in saving millions of lives every year. Some Indian pharma facilities had to be shut down as workers tested positive for COVID–19. Plants that are currently operational are producing less due to manpower crunch amid partially opened lockdown and social distancing measures. In short, production timelines have changed drastically. However, an increase in the sales of masks, sanitizers, and immunity booster drugs has been noticed.

Emergence of Healthcare Sector during Crisis

With the number of cases increasing every day, the tension in healthcare has been increasing rapidly. People have been seen tweeting about the unavailability of proper facilities. While on the other hand some have been seen praising the doctors and the medical facilities that they (the doctors) are providing at their ends. As the vaccine development still seems to be a far-fetched idea, plasma therapy is known to be doing an appreciable job as it has been seen in various serious cases.

As per the demand and the then need of the hour, the major changes were implemented on making COVID care hospitals exclusive. Subsequently, it was also needed to separate the staff and the COVID patients from the patients who had other diseases. To build such special requirements laden infrastructure amidst pandemic is something which seems impossible. According to a healthcare practitioner, a few thousand hospitals and ventilator beds are not enough for India’s 1.35 billion population. However, the Centre spent more than ₹300 crores only on hospital equipment. But this investment is too small compared to the large population that needed to be served in the midst of a global pandemic. Private hospitals invested in large volumes of essential medical supplies and restructured hospital infrastructure to create isolation and quarantine facilities. According to the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry, a private industry body, on a brighter side, the manufacturing capacity for ventilators alone has increased from 3,000 a month in February to 33,000 a month in May. Experts said that managing a pandemic will leave hospitals with some important lessons. There were intensified unanticipated and unplanned investments for COVID-19, but they will help in the long run.

During this global catastrophe, not only corona positive people suffered but also the people who had other diseases due to the extra pressure on the healthcare system and the fear among the people and health officials. In the earlier phase of the Corona pandemic, doctors for chronic diseases were not available and the patients who had their medications going on for a long time suffered due to the sudden disruption. Those who were infected with new diseases dithered to visit the clinics. Obviously, it was chaos in the beginning but with the time as there was a gradually increasing focus on segregating COVID and non-COVID hospitals, it was managed.

The virus came at the tipping point for the IT industry in terms of disruption to its functions. Having the collective data of medical background of every individual, implementing artificial intelligence, having phone applications that let you buy medicines online, producing low-cost ventilators, making OPD consultation rooms with video-conferencing solutions were some of the tasks that came in favor for the personnel in the IT domain during the pandemic. With the introduction of telemedicine, it would be easy to communicate with and diagnose the patients. This is already in practice and has resulted in making hospitals less crowded. It allows people to rest at home and visit hospitals only in the time of emergencies.

While healthcare people had their SOPs for treatments and themselves; other people had some guidelines to follow too. The majority of corporate sector individuals had to work from home, students had to attend their classes online, production businesses were on halt among others. These were among a number of changed modalities that are being implemented to prevent further spread of this disease. The gradually modified guidelines were implemented with every lockdown extension and as the world is under various stages of the unlock period, we are still seeing the implications of the guidelines. Healthcare sector people nonetheless are evolving their way of working to ensure that hospitals are not overburdened with cases.

Post-COVID Healthcare

There is no doubt that we will come out of this pandemic someday with a great experience and we will be better prepared for any such calamity happening in the future. Healthcare facilities will surely improve but there would be many changes that we will see in terms of their adaptation. The post-COVID world would be significantly different for us as well as the healthcare sector people. Telemedicine and digital health-tech already have shown their aptitude to make efficient healthcare delivery a possibility. They will soon be adopted on a large scale. Sanitization, masks, social distancing will be a part of our lives and we will continue to live with this for at least some time into the future.

We need to ask ourselves some questions. Do we really want to keep ourselves locked-in the majority of time? Do we want to wear masks every time, maintain social distancing, and not hug our friends when we meet them? No, we definitely do not want this. We can keep following this for some time given that the healthcare sector is adapting their SOPs for this changed scenario. We need to be prepared for adverse conditions and we should at least follow the guidelines that are being implemented by the experts in the healthcare sector.

The author is a student member of the Amity Centre of Happiness.

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Agreement for treatment of COVID patients made by Pune Municipal Corporation to extend with only 4 out of 11 private hospitals

The Pune Municipal Corporation has decided to extend its current agreements for the treatment of Covid-19 patients referred by the civil administration with only four of the 11 private city hospitals working closely with the civic body. The PMC had a six-month agreement with all 11 hospitals at the onset of the epidemic.

The decline in active Covid-19 cases has led to a decrease in demand for hospital beds.

Sources said that if the demands for oxygen & beds increase, the agreement with the remaining private hospitals will be extended as per the requirement.

After the Covid-19 outbreak in the city, the PMC started treating the infected residents in civil hospitals, Covid care centers in the city, and Sassoon Hospital. The PMC had marked a six-month contract with 11 private emergency clinics that hold beds for the therapy of Covid-19 patients referred and sent by the municipal body and give therapy at an endorsed expense for each of the clinical assistances.

Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar said that the agreement with 11 private hospitals, which expired in this month, had a clause to extend the agreement based on mutual understanding between the hospital and the PMC.

Kumar said that the Covid-19 epidemic has not subsided yet. Currently, isolation beds are not in great demand, but oxygen beds are required. The PMC will extend agreements with some private hospitals for three months. The agreement will be extended to a total of 395 oxygen beds and 100 ICU beds at Symbiosis University Hospital, Bharti Hospital, Dinanath Mangeshkar Hospital, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Hospital.

PMC was relying more on private hospitals to treat critical patients due to a lack of oxygen in civilian government hospitals and their ICU facilities. To augment its treatment facilities, the PMC had set up an 800-bed jumbo facility in the College of Engineering Pune campus to create a new hospital with 600 oxygen beds and 200 ICU beds. Naidu Hospital as of now has 250 oxygen beds and 37 ICU beds, and Dalvi hospital has 150 oxygen beds and 17 ICU beds. The PMC also plans to increase the number of oxygen beds and ICU beds in government hospitals in the city.

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Seventeen states and Union territories provide substantially high recovery rate to India from Covid 19

Union health ministry on Wednesday revealed that 17 states and union territories played a vital role to help India sustain a high Covid-19 recovery figure. India’s Covid-19 recovery rate of these states and UTs is higher than the national recovery rate.

“India’s total Covid-19 recoveries have crossed 56.6 lakh. This has boosted the national recovery rate to reach 84.7%. This sustained high figure is fuelled by 17 states/UTs reporting recovery rate higher than the national average,” the ministry said.

The 17 states/union territories are:

  1. Daman and Diu; Dadra and Nagar Haveli (96.7%)
  2. Andaman and Nicobar Islands (93.8%)
  3. Bihar (93.4%)
  4. Andhra Pradesh (92.1%)
  5. Tamil Nadu (91.1%)
  6. Delhi (90.2%)
  7. Haryana (90.1%)
  8. West Bengal (88%)
  9. Uttar Pradesh (87.8%)
  10. Odisha (87.7%)
  11. Jharkhand (87.3%)
  12. Mizoram (86.3%)
  13. Telangana (86.3%)
  14. Punjab (86.1%)
  15. Gujarat (85.9%)
  16. Chandigarh (85.8%)
  17. Goa (85.3%)

As per the health ministry’s dashboard, in an overall caseload of 6,685,082, India has reported 5,662,490 recoveries. While, after the United States, this makes India the second-worst Covid-19 affected country, India also made a record in the highest number of coronavirus recoveries in the world with a recovery rate of 84.7%.

A figure in the ministry has highlighted repeatedly that in recent days, India has contributed more than 20% of the total global recoveries.

The second-highest number of recoveries have been reported by the world’s worst-affected country, The US. While the third worst-hit, Brazil also has the third-highest number of recoveries (4.3 million).

Meanwhile, the tally of India’s active cases and deaths stands at 919,023 and 103,569, respectively. After a nationwide lockdown from March 25 to May 31, it is currently in the fifth stage of ‘unlocking’.

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Serosurvey in three districts of Telangana reveals a slow transmission rate for Covid-19

The number of Covid-19 cases is on a rise in India. Serosurveys are conducted nationwide to record the number of infected people in a defined population. One such serosurvey was conducted in Telangana for the second time, to test the number of actively infected people in the state on August 26 and August 27, 2020.

This survey was conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research – National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN) in Kamareddy, Jangaon, and Nalgonda districts. It was declared that the transmission rate of the virus has slowed down.

Thirty people out of 433 people whose samples were collected, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies, making it 0.9% of the total collected samples in Kamareddy district. The first round of serosurvey in this district recorded for 0.25% proportion of infected individuals.

In Jangaon, out of 454 people, only 83 tested positive for the virus. This makes it approximately 18.2% of the total samples collected. This percentage was 0.5% in May 2020, which was during the first round of the serosurvey.

Nalgonda recorded for 11.1% infected people, that is, 47 infected people out of 422. This percentile was 0.25% in May 2020 and seemed to have increased since then.

The survey was conducted following the ICMR guidelines, according to which, 10 wards or villages must be selected in each district or village. For conducting the study, any 16 households were selected randomly by the officials in these 3 districts. Individuals of the age above 10 years were tested for the survey. In total, 1309 such people were studied and tested from these districts in Telangana.

As per the NIN, even if the transmission rate is slow, many people in these districts are still susceptible to Covid-19 infection. Therefore, residents of this area must follow all the preventive measures carefully, such as wearing face masks, covering the mouth and nose while coughing or sneezing, carrying portable hand sanitizers among other steps.

The author is a student member of Amity center of Happiness. 

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Delhi HC asks state govt: Why are you wasting testing capacity?

Delhi High Court questioned Delhi Government on the wastage of the testing rate of Coronavirus.The Delhi High Court said the coronavirus testing’s rate as compared to the testing being conducted through the Rapid Antigen Test (RAT), RT-PCR in Delhi remains “abysmally low”.

In a status report, the court was informed that Geospatial Delhi Limited has prepared a map of 320 testing sites and it has been shared with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation for placing it at prominent locations at major Metro stations for public information.

Meanwhile, to notify the court about the Covid-19 Expert Committee’s decision on ramping up RT-PCR testing in the capital, the Delhi government solicited more time.

Court has been informed by the Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain that the Expert Committee is looking into parameters of RT-PCR testing and whether they need to be changed. “We have been doing RT-PCR as per the protocol. The cases which required RT-PCR … it has been conducted in those cases. In some cases, people prefer the shorter route of RAT,” submitted Jain.

The court also said the capacity of around 14,000 RT-PCR tests was being “frittered away” in Delhi. “…which cannot make any sense when the cases of Covid-19 infection in same period between September 14-27 remains in the range of 3,000-4000 except for September 20 when 2,548 positive cases were reported,” said the court.

The highest RT-PCR and other similar testing methods used by the state between September 14 and September 27 on a single day was 11,417 on September 26, observed by the division bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad observed. Each day the numbers are beholding a change and that testing through RT-PCR plummeted to 7,672 on September 27, added the court.

“Why are you wasting your testing capacity,” the court observed. Court also added that compared to RATs,  RT-PCR testing figures are “pathetic”, which are taking place more than 45,000 on an average each day. The court noted in its order that “much emphasis has been constantly laid” by it about ramping up the RT-PCR testing, but “it appears the same has been of no avail”.

Jain also stated that there is a number fluctuation in the capital and no typical trend” was emerging. “This is likely to settle down in 10 days or so. We will have a little better picture,” he submitted, adding that from neighbouring cities and other states’ people are travelling to Delhi in large numbers and occupying private hospitals to the extent of 32-33%.

Satyakam, Additional Standing Counsel of Delhi, submitted the court before the Expert Committee met on September 28, which consider the parameters of RT-PCR testing, contact tracing and areas which need to be focused on more. The court has been informed that in 7-10 days, their report will come and to notify the court about the decision, two weeks are required.

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Issue of shortage of doctors in India- lessons from the Covid19 pandemic

Globally, doctors are generally given the stature next to God as they are healers who bring people back from death.  A professional doctor dedicated to the work is an earthly person equipped with a comprehensive knowledge and necessary devices that allows the diagnosis and treatment of others with correct insights and procedures. They are not just the healers but also the lifesavers who work tirelessly for the mankind. Doctors are doing a very noble and honourable work, which has been surveyed to be one of the most sought-after professions. Undoubtedly, doctors and their teams generally are very proficient and have demonstrated their importance time and again for mankind.

Medical Scenario in India

Indian medical scenario is well known all over the world. The doctors originating from India are reaching new heights and are stepping towards the zenith of success globally.
Highlighting the bright side of the story, as India has always been a country of tradition; the qualities of our doctors are deeply rooted in our culture, in every human irrespective of her/his religion. According to a survey, it has been found that Indian doctors are very charitable in comparison to doctors throughout world. They are a bit more connected towards the pain of the people and the nation in general.

The increasing exigency of Indian doctors is growing everyday and is completely undeniable. The Indian doctors with their excellent skills and knowledge have spread their arms globally. The massive number of medical colleges and government support for the profession is giving wings to the growth chart. Needless to say, India is a reservoir of medical professionals. India is providing a work field, infrastructure, underprop, as well as substructures to doctors everywhere ranging from the small villages to the big metro cities. The dedication and spirit of Indian doctors have expanded across their working arena. Aside from the allopathy, India also has doctors who access Ayurvedic, Unani as well as Homeopathic medicine system having almost zero side effects. The doctors have mixed the Indian nature and the culture in their profession very effectively and efficiently and this compassionate spirit has entitled them to be known as the asset of the nation in terms of providing treatment.

Deficient Manpower in India in healthcare sector

The WHO recommends a standard doctor to population ratio of 1:1000 and surprisingly only 11 among India’s 29 states meet this WHO recommendation standard, while none in the public healthcare sector manages to make the cut. Despite India having a booming private medical sector, the public healthcare system operates at a dismal ratio of 0.08 doctors for 1000 people. A researcher has studied the lack of staffs in medical profession that are properly practiced in administering antibiotics and analysed the data and has found that India has a shortage of approximately 600,000 doctors and 2 million nurses.

The capital of India, Delhi, undoubtedly has the greatest number of doctors working in the public healthcare sector whereas Goa holds the highest number of registered doctors, with a doctor to population ratio of almost 2: 1000. The state itself is a rare example of medical manpower management and the proper use of doctors as Goa became the first Indian state to become free of COVID-19. (Recently, the state of Goa has again seen 590 new cases.) According to a survey, the states that are facing the highest shortfall of doctors are Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh that house a huge share of more than 0.8 billion of the Indian rural population. The need of the hour is to focus on this demand-supply mismatch in our healthcare infrastructure. Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) are the rudimentary structural and functional constituents of the public health services in India. It is high time for India to start addressing the shortage of doctors at this level of the healthcare. In 2018, government data revealed that 10 Indian states have insufficient doctors at the PHC level. This shortage has burdened the skills of the doctors, and has made a web around them that grappled with the mismatch between the talent and the number of available doctors.

It is a necessity to realise that these numbers are the best-case scenarios when our doctors are working at their full potential. COVID -19 has made things more transparent in terms of exposition of the ground level scenario. For any rational observer, a thought would cross the mind that the situation would have been better if the nation had focused on the issue before. We listen, read and hear very day of doctors being appreciated for their hard work, dedication, long working hours, unstoppable working skills and yet the people failing to understand the stress felt by the doctors. There are numerous cases where the doctors are harassed when there is death of the patients, in cases where either it was too late or the hospital’s infrastructure was not up to the mark. In such mentally straining situations, the doctors take the responsibility and burden on their shoulders. This workload has squeezed the last drops out of their potential.

In 2009, we have already witnessed this in the Swine Flu outbreak. We are witnessing it now during the Covid19 outbreak. We saw how much strained the population of people serving in the healthcare sector has come to be.  We will continue to relive similar outcomes of such outbreaks unless the country infuses more doctors into the healthcare sector by judicious spending in medical education. Setting up of a new NMC in place of MCI will not help much. The government spending has to be done in the health sector, including the private sector (through PPP), in terms of allowing them of providing subsidised treatment as well as in public health infrastructure. Authorities need to put their mind into this otherwise; undoubtedly such outbreaks and public health hazards would be more unmanageable with increasing population. The conditions would become more fatal and more challenging in the future.

COVID-19 and Indian Doctors

Unless all Indian states meet at least the essential healthcare requirements i.e. the number of doctors, personal protective equipment (PPEs) among others, the country cannot possibly block, contain and tackle the pandemic. Presently, the best strategy is containment and stringent testing to make sure that the fragile healthcare system is not overburdened or exploited. As global healthcare scuffles to survive with COVID-19, our nation has a long way to go before it can go win the battle.

In Karnataka, private hospitals and nursing homes have shared that they are facing shortage of doctors, nurses and ward staff to treat and take care of patients struggling with COVID-19. Apart from this, R. Ravindra, the president of the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA), said that they are facing 30% shortage of doctors and 50% scarcity of nurses and ward boys. He added multiple reasons for this which includes fear of doctors of getting infected. In some cases medical staff went to their hometowns during the lockdown and did not return and almost 6% to 10% of staff tested positive and are under quarantine aggravating the shortage situation.

Sudarshan Ballal, the director of Manipal Group of Hospitals, also shared insights about the same shortage scenario during this pandemic. This has burdened the existing doctors as they have to work in shift system. In order to deal with this insufficiency the association has written to Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences to depute their final-year nursing students, including those specialising in Ayurveda and other streams. Dr KK Gupta, Director, Medical Education said that students completing MD, MS and PG Diploma courses will be appointed for the post of senior resident doctor at government hospitals, which is a very sought-after position. India is dealing with the situation and is gradually realising that the nation needs more medically trained manpower for such pandemics. It is a learning outcome for India in terms of having sufficient number of doctors for such a large population in such unpredictable times of the pandemic.

Workload & Stress are Barriers for Real Potential

As a result of the shortage, doctors are currently bearing with high workload leading to poor performance and high tendency to make mistakes which can be and are scary in medical environment. Countless cases of medical negligence are being regularly reported and documented which can be traced to the burden of overwork. Within the department, lack of support from senior colleagues and faculty has also been reported in healthcare. This shows that the burden is equal on all the branches and levels of the department.

However, what is sorrowful and surprising is that mental stress on doctors at times leads to suicides which further aggravate the shortage situation. A human sometimes fails to deal with the stress or the consequences due to stress. This condition is sometimes complicated by overtime. As a result, it gets hard to conceive, plan and perform a human function at his optimum on that single day and afterwards without enough amount of sleep. Along with the economy getting bigger, our healthcare also requires a bigger contribution both in terms of the size of the pie as well as percentage.

It is undeniable that healthcare sector in the country is woefully underfunded and this state of affairs is unacceptable. A greater addition in the number of postgraduate residency seats combined with clearing of the bottlenecks in the medical education system is the current need of the hour.

Deficiency of human resources in healthcare occurs at several levels, amongst the regions, between rural and urban areas, as well as between the public and private sectors. On the one side of the coin, there is unwillingness of doctors and other health personnel to work in rural areas; on the other side, even in the urban areas, preponderance of the large health manpower is noticed in the private sector driven by profit. This causes delivery of their services beyond the approach, access and reach of the majority of poor in the nation. The density of doctors is almost four times higher in urban areas when compared to the rural areas and that is a problematic statistics.

Despite deficiencies, doctors are expected to lead the way in solving problems and supervising the work of other team members as well. Deficiency of health personnel is by no chance limited to the doctors alone. This insufficiency besides affecting the delivery of curative services may also reflect adversely in the complete functioning of the health team. This strongly affects the patient. Private hospital patients complained that doctors were conducting fewer rounds per day and giving priority to most-serious patients, specifically during the pandemic.

A medical officer in charge of the CHC at Baijnath in district Bageshwar, Uttarakhand, said that given the patient workload and the strength of doctors at the facility, he is hardly able to give even a minute per patient in the OPD. This makes us wonder what is the worth of a doctor’s work, and what quality of services they have and ultimately what they are actually providing.
It is high time for the government to deal with this shortage. This issue is not only playing with the lives of the doctors but it is leaving a huge impact on their skills, their patients, their patience and their potential. The stress, the burden, the mistakes can be life threatening.
We must understand that more manpower gives more strength and courage to any individual in healthcare as well as to the whole nation. A single man cannot win a battle; a force is required whether it is on a battlefield or in a hospital. Both of the pillars hold equal responsibility towards the nation.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness.

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Renowned singer SP Balasubrahmanyam left for heavenly abode at the age of 74

SP Balasubrahmanyam, the legendary singer died at the age of 74 today. The singer had tested positive for Covid-19 and was admitted at a private hospital in Chennai on August 5, 2020.

He had posted a video recording on Facebook on 5th of August informing his fans about his condition and how he was battling against the Coronavirus disease. In the video, he told his well-wishers not to worry about him as he was fine and just needs to take some rest. He also added – “I am having a little discomfort, some congestion in the chest, which, for a singer, is nonsense. And fever on and off. Otherwise, I do not have any problems. But I donot want to take it easy, so I came to the hospital to get checked.”

During the second week of his admission into the hospital, the singer’s health began to deteriorate. However, his son, SP Charan kept updating his fans about his health stating his father was gradually making progress and moving towards recovery, as of September 22, 2020.

Sadly, for the past 24 hours, Subrahmanyam’s health began to worsen at a rapid rate, resulting in his demise.

He was an Indian musician, playback singer, music director, film producer, actor, and a prolific multifaceted artist.

The late singer had received many awards for his astonishing performance in Telugu movies as well as in Bollywood. He was honored with a Padma Shri award in 2001, and a Padma Bhushan in 2011, by the Government of India.

The very first National Award received by him was for the musical drama movie ‘Sankarabharanam’ in 1976.

Additionally, he had also won several National Film Awards for renditions in his melodious voice in movies like ‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye-1981’, ‘Rudraveena-1988’, ‘Minsaara Kanavu-1996’, and many more. He was also awarded the Filmfare in 1989 for his famous song ‘Dil Deewana’ in the romantic classic ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ featuring Salman Khan and Bhagyashree.

In 2017, he had won the ‘SIIMA Lifetime Achievement Award’ for various films in various languages.

The Indian playback singer was well-known for his contributions to the South Indian films. He had sung approximately 40,000 songs in multiple languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and many more.

He was also known to have recorded 19 Tamil songs in a single day. Similarly, he had recorded over 16 Hindi songs in a day which is quite unbelievable.

Subrahmanyam was married to Savitri Subrahmanyam. The couple had 2 children, SP Charan, and Pallavi Balasubrahmnyam.

Various actors and politicians have shared their condolences to the singer and his family on twitter. Rahul Gandhi said, “My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family and friends of Mr. S. P. Balasubrahmanyam. His songs touched millions of hearts in many languages. His voice will live on.”

While Boney Kapoor tweeted –“We lost a legend today. Over 17,000 songs across 17 languages, his voice united music lovers across generations and regions. Your legacy of songs shall always keep your memories alive. Deepest condolences to the family.”

The legend of SP Balasubrahmanyam will live on.

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Impact of the Pandemic over Women in the Workforce

The Covid-19 pandemic is affecting all countries, destroying jobs, increasing poverty, and putting at risk the hard won gender equality gains of last few decades. The pandemic is not just a public health crisis; it is a social and economic crisis.  There is no doubt that the pandemic has accelerated economic stress among low income households and as a result women in these households are the worst hit and are under risk. COVID-19 has been particularly unkind to women, who have been the biggest sufferers of the impacts of lockdown as well as post lockdown, be it at work place or at home. Many of the broader repercussions of the pandemic are affecting them more severely.

The current crisis dis-proportionally impacts the women. There are various reasons behind this. First, women in developing countries are more likely to work in social sectors such as hospitality, retail, restaurants and tourism which require face to face interactions. These are the sectors being hit the hardest by social distancing brought as a precautionary measure in the wake of the pandemic. There are also concerns in many of the developing countries like women often work in informal sectors as domestic workers, street vendors and casual labourers. These informal sectors tend to be low skilled and low paid jobs and therefore have lesser job security and social protection which provide women with limited resources to adjust to this economic crisis. According to official statistics in April 2020, monthly unemployment rates rose sharply from 3.1 to 15.5 % for women.

India is already in bad shape in terms of female unemployment. Currently around 80% of women remain outside the workforce according to a recent study by Public affairs centre (PAC) report. It states that dynamics of family, social biases and patriarchal tilt in the culture are the main reasons behind it. More than 60% of employed women are in informal sector according to the data and opinions recorded in PAC study. Hence a substantial proportion of women working in informal sectors fighting social constraints lost their only source of income. They have now become more vulnerable to economic destitution. Many of the different dimensions in work in which COVID-19 is having greater impact on women are those which are at the heart of gender inequality. These include wages, educational gap, limited access to finance and workplace bias.

Secondly, women who generally carry the higher and wider burden of household work load are bearing most of the costs triggered by school closures and health risks posed to elderly family members. The pandemic has also caused an increased burden of caring for the older people and the children in the houses. Here also the balance has to be maintained by the women thanks to the  biased family values. The women are not expected to share this burden with anyone else, be it her spouse or the elders due to this very family bias. She cannot even delegate this duty to outsiders due to risk of infection with the virus. Single parents are facing the greatest challenge. Without access to enough paid leave many single parents had to quit their job to care for their children.  In case both husband and wife work full time, then question arises on how to split the childcare responsibilities. In this case usually the mother is expected to assume the responsibility of child care, thanks to the unshakable belief in patriarchy. Uncertainty about the reopening of schools and fear of the contagion for the most vulnerable section of children along with family expectations generally lead  to women exiting the labour force for a prolonged period of time, entailing long term costs to their careers.

Thirdly, the new normal of remote working is posing a challenge of integration into work area and there is issue of online safety. While urban area women still have access to some support, the poor migrants lurking on the margins of society have been the hardest hit by the pandemic. Many women migrant workers who were working at different locations from their daily wage earning husbands had to deal with the impact on their own safety as well as on the children which were under their responsibilities.

Limited digital connectivity and access to technology as well as poor IT skills are also affecting   women entrepreneurs and workers in developing economies like India, from fully making use of digital platforms to mitigate the adverse economic effect of pandemic.

The pandemic and the associated economic distress are at an early stage with a lot of uncertainties. It does not prevent one from anticipating certain potential negative fallouts. There needs to be actionable plans and preparations for such fallouts. Policy makers around the world are trying to focus on responding to the immediate crisis, fighting the devastating effect of pandemic on health care whist trying to keep the economies alive. The next step needs to be finding the tools to sustain economic growth, fight poverty and regain the lost grounds in gender equality and evolving a gender appropriate response that leaves no one behind. Increasing women participation in economic activity can be a part of the solution to post pandemic recovery. Digital technology offers great opportunities to women if they are properly trained in it. However it is important to put women in such positions where it would be possible for them to take advantages of opportunities. It needs to be understood that the responsibility of childcare is a shared role for both the parents. Post-Covid adjustments need to incorporate this in dealing with the pandemic’s impact on women in workforce.

In pre-Covid as well during Covid, the world has already been experiencing exacerbating pay and promotion gaps between men and women. If in post Covid times, women continue to lose their space from the workforce economic down turn will continue. As women have been found to add greater value to any organization in terms of emotional value, output, judicious use of resources and linkages with partners and stakeholders, lesser participation by them can spell disaster for an already mangled world economy. This can have massive repercussions on the gains women and as a result the economies have made in the workforce and in the overall productivity in recent years.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness.

Editor Opinion, Biswarup Mukhopadhyay has given important inputs for the article.