The Second Covid Wave Is Far From Over And A Policy Change Is The Need Of The Hour

In his recent address to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that from June 21 Covid-19 vaccines will be administered for free to all adults across India. This is a welcome move that attempts to ensure optimal vaccination in the least amount of time. However, India’s inoculation journey is still going to be rough and pathetically painful as our problem lies elsewhere, and that needs immediate attention.

This pandemic has seen an incessant loss of physicians' and health workers' lives worldwide. The scenario in India is especially grim. Low pay, inhumanely long shifts, and severe shortages of staff have left many healthcare workers on the frontlines of India's brutal pandemic surge unnecessarily vulnerable.

Coronavirus infections have killed at least 1,65,000 people since April in what is christened as the "second Covid wave”. Although India's latest Covid-19 surge has eased recently, around 3,000 people are still dying every day. The healthcare system remains under severe pressure. One of the weakest pillars in this system; that is fast running out of steam are physicians and health care workers. Pandemics are treated by medical personnel and not by hospital beds or oxygen concentrators. Conservative accounts estimate more than one thousand doctors died of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic in India. However, the so-called second wave is nowhere near termination yet. Indications are rife that this number will increase. The number in the USA is believed to be twice that. However, the physician to population ratio is 2.6 per thousand in the US, whereas it is just 0.8 in India. Even Brazil, the other severely hit nation with more deaths than India but less than the US, has twice the number of physicians per thousand.

However, a pragmatic policy can avert serious disaster. All the thousands of non-allopathic physicians trained through taxpayer money need to be recruited and specially trained to man this pandemic. Restricted licensure after short skill development training to treat non-urgent, non-ICU cases under the mentorship of trained physicians could be a pattern. More extensive use of telemedicine particularly to man ICU units at nights may also help assuage the present manpower crisis.

A trained army of medical students of various ‘pathies’ other than allopathy can be garnered to inject vaccines to the 130-crore population at stake to be vaccinated either once or twice.

Immediate action is also warranted to either lend more manufacturers to produce vaccines or buy from foreign producers to ensure appropriate supply and reduce waiting time. An estimated 3% of India's population has been fully vaccinated. In comparison, 13% of its population has received at least one dose, according to Our World in Data, an Oxford University project tracking the global vaccine rollout. Considerable acceleration of vaccination has been instituted with positive results since the last weeks of May. This efficiency needs to be perpetuated until the current wave is quelled. This will also ensure that possibility of future waves is dwindled due to herd immunity. A government decision mandating that foreign vaccine makers conduct local clinical trials was recently rescinded, generating prospects that Pfizer and other manufacturers could enter India with their vaccines without delay. While it is not yet clear if the third wave will happen or if it will involve children, but it is essential to comprehend that every child needs to be vaccinated as otherwise, they will form a reservoir for the virus lending the country at risk for further pandemic waves due to a perceptible lack of herd immunity.

(The author is a cardiologist and professor. He is based in Memphis, TN, USA. Views expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of Outlook Magazine.)