'We are now better prepared to manage health exigencies'

We are facing a global crisis of unimaginable proportions. Humanity is at risk. Virtually every country on this earth is impacted in one form or the other due to the pandemic.

The novel coronavirus has spread globally, resulting in more than 154 million cases and over three million deaths so far. This is the time for greater international cooperation. If we stand united, we have every chance of winning this virus war.

There is a sense of great urgency and need for us to come together than ever before. The right to health far outweighs any reward or any benefit countries or individuals can derive.

The right to healthcare is a moral and ethical responsibility we all need to fulfil for our citizens. In September last year, a survey by World Economic Forum indicated that people believed that more international cooperation would have reduced coronavirus spread and a rising number of cases.

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Last year, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and other stakeholders, the World Bank held a virtual roundtable to devise an action plan to facilitate international cooperation and communications to tackle the pandemic better.

I must say that since then, we have made tremendous progress. Every government across the world has fought the pandemic, keeping in view their cultural factors, the quality of the existing public health system, the status of the economy, among other factors.

Strategies adopted right from restricting citizen movement through lockdowns to rapidly rolling out Covid-19 vaccines should be analysed and understood from this perspective.

It is the coming together of leaders, policymakers, and administrators to find an implementable and successful solution that has helped nations. Such efforts are indeed laudable.

International cooperation was a crucial element in producing an effective vaccine and making it available to people worldwide. Researchers, business leaders, policymakers and other stakeholders acted quickly to overcome scientific, regulatory and market challenges to develop and distribute the vaccine.

Pandemic management hinges on knowing and analysing the infection status, community engagement status, how adequate the public health capacity and the health system capacity is and ensuring border controls.

We in India, too, responded quickly and effectively in 2020 to tackle the virus. India led the charge in this region, building on the strength of our international diplomacy and at the same time, balancing our commitment to building Atmanirbhar Bharat.

The year 2020 also taught us the importance of balancing both life and livelihood. In Karnataka, we recorded the first case in March 2020. The government acted swiftly, adopting a “5T” policy strategy: trace, track, test, treat and technology.

The Government of Karnataka pioneered this and implemented it effectively to contain and control the number of cases in 2020. The second wave of the virus hit the state about a month and a half ago. The government swung into action to form a task force and entrusted me with the responsibility of steering it.

We have since then streamlined bed management, oxygen supply, drug availability, home isolation and triaging to reduce the burden on hospital infrastructure and partnered with private hospitals and others to get things under control.

We are tracking the increased oxygen requirement through a three-pronged strategy of increasing supply of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO), massive scaling of localised generation capacity through oxygen generators, large scale procurement of concentrators and cylinders.

The Government of India has increased the allocation of oxygen from 965 tonne to 1,015 tonne. We have sourced an additional 260 tonne.

We have increased hospital infrastructure. The Department of Health and Family Welfare now has more than 24,000 oxygenated beds, 1,145 ICU beds, 2,058 ventilated beds and 1,248 beds with heat and humidified high flow nasal cannula ventilators (HFNCs) while the medical education department has 9,405 oxygen beds.

Hospital infrastructure

The number of ventilated beds has doubled to 646 and the number of HFNCs from 15 to 570. The action to ramp up the hospital infrastructure is continuing. More ventilators are getting added regularly. We have given about 200 ventilators to private hospitals.

The novel coronavirus has taught us newer lessons and posed a difficult challenge. Once we surmount this pandemic phase, what we will witness is a new world order. A world order with a high level of adherence and access to better healthcare, protecting vulnerable populations and addressing health inequalities.

There will be better economic support to balance life and livelihood. We all will be better prepared for managing health exigencies because united we stand to fight it.

The Government of Karnataka is committed to building a healthcare resilient state. Our vision is to create a sophisticated, multi-speciality hospital in every nook and corner of the state.

Even the remotest area of the state should have ICUs and other necessary healthcare services to offer. As upanishad and our Sanskrit texts of religious teachings say, we live in Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. It means the world is one family. As a family, we learn from each other, help each other for the benefit of humanity.

(The writer is Deputy Chief Minister, Government of Karnataka)