Coronavirus India: Health experts criticise government’s handling of the pandemic

Coronavirus India: Health experts criticise government’s handling of the pandemic

The central government on Saturday released a set of guidelines for Unlock 1.0 but, as India slowly looks forward to the phased out opening of the country, experts claim that the government has not considered an adequate number of epidemiologists while handling the coronavirus pandemic and in the process of decision making.

Considering the increasing number of new positive cases in the country, experts suggest the existence of community transmission in the hotspots in India.

A joint statement by Indian Public Health Association, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine and Indian Association of Epidemiologists read, “It is unrealistic to expect that COVID-19 pandemic can be eliminated at this stage given that community transmission is already well-established across large sections or sub-populations in the country.”

Currently, the number of active cases in India stands over 89,995 and the number of cured cases stands at 86,983 (as of Sunday, 8 am), according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. However, India recorded its new daily high of 7,964 new cases on Saturday. The country also saw a hike in the number of daily recovered patients yesterday at 11,000. It was also reported that India has seen improvements in its doubling rate.

Criticising the government's efforts, the statement said, “India’s nationwide “lockdown” from March 25, 2020, till May 30, 2020, has been one of the most stringent; and yet COVID cases have increased exponentially through this phase… This draconian lockdown is presumably in response to a modelling exercise from an influential institution which was a ‘worst-case simulation’… Subsequent events have proved that the predictions of this model were way off the mark. Had the Government of India consulted epidemiologists who had a better grasp of disease transmission dynamics compared to modellers, it would have perhaps been better served….”

The statement signatories were the countries prominent healthcare experts including Dr Shashi Kant, Professor & Head, Centre for Community Medicine AIIMS, New Delhi and Dr DCS Reddy, Former Professor & Head, Community Medicine, BHU.

The signatories also included two doctors from AIIMS – Dr Puneet Misra, Professor, Community Medicine and Dr Kapil Yadav, Additional Professor, Community Medicine.

Talking about the state of the migrant workers, the statement adds that the handling of migrants fuelled the challenge of managing the spread of the disease.

Concluding, the statement suggests (among other recommendations) that an inter-disciplinary panel of public health and preventive health experts and social scientists at central, state and district levels should be constituted to address both public health and humanitarian crises.

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