Avert apocalypse, gear up for third Covid wave
rallies in Bengal. Even with the second wave on an upsurge, Prime Minister Narendra Modi exulting over the size of the election gathering in Bengal and Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar inaugurating three makeshift Covid hospitals in the presence of crowds, throwing Covid protocol to the wind, signify rules are meant only for the public.
Administer free universal immunisation In his address to the nation on Monday, Modi made a U-turn on the vaccination policy, declaring that the Centre will now buy 75% of the vaccines, leaving 25% quota of vaccination to the private sector. This rethink seems to have been forced by searching questions asked by the Supreme Court on the vaccination policy for the 18-45 age group. The government was hard put to explain why it had allowed a differential pricing for vaccines for the Centre, states and private sector instead of the Centre using its better economy of scale, leverage for negotiation with international manufacturers; why a 25% quota had been allocated to the private sector that would charge for vaccination instead of free universal immunisation; and how the budgetary allocation of Rs 35,000 crore for vaccination had been expended.
Unnecessary delay in the vaccination procurement by the Centre could be lethal in combating the next wave. By the commercialisation of the vaccination drive, the Centre has been trying to reinvent the wheel, whereas all vaccination drives, such as BCG/DPT for the eradication of TB, diphtheria, smallpox, measles, cholera, typhoid or polio, had been done through free universal immunisation programmes in the past.
Improve health infrastructure in Haryana
Based on global patterns, epidemiologists see a third Covid-19 wave in India sometime in the last quarter of this year. If the virus mutant takes on a more lethal form, it could be a catastrophe of apocalyptic dimensions. In this context, the failure of the Haryana government to lay a single brick or make any headway in respect of the Choudhry Bansi Lal Medical College at Bhiwani project, approved for a cost of Rs 450 crore during former MP Shruti Choudhry’s tenure, is retrograde and irrational.
Equally disappointing is the Haryana government’s failure to ensure the supply of Amphotericin-b injections for black fungus patients. Such patients from Bhiwani are referred to Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, or the medical college at Agroha in Hisar, where they are left to fend for themselves in the absence of medicines or proper treatment protocol.
Ramp up vaccination drive
We need to gear up better for the third wave. For ramping up the vaccination drive and healthcare facilities, committees of elected representatives from panchayats or municipalities, health personnel and district administration officials should be constituted at the district, sub-division, block and village/ward levels. All citizens should be vaccinated free of cost by the yearend. The vaccination target is stiff but doable if done through panchayats and municipalities.
Second, a village-level dispensary has usually a staff of a doctor an ASHA worker in Haryana with a large number of posts lying vacant. Doctors to population ratio in India is 1:1100 for urban areas, while it is 1:12000 in villages.
Covid centres for cluster of villages
In view of this skewed situation, a cluster of 10 villages/ wards can pool their staff at one place by mutual consent, and make a Covid centre operational at a central location so that nobody from the cluster has to travel more than 10km. Medical/paramedical staff should be trained in providing oxygen support to Covid patients, vaccination, conducting RT-PCR and antigen tests.
Each such cluster of villages/wards should be provided with a radiologist and a lab technician, testing equipment and an X-ray machine. Services of retired medical personnel and final year students/ interns doing Mbbs/nursing courses should be used.
Third, the funds should be provided from PM-CARES and budgetary allocations for healthcare/vaccination and reserve funds of the Reserve Bank of India. This will enable our PHCS/CHCS and multispecialty hospitals to tend to critical Covid patients and non-covid patients. The costs on the above are not too large, if we take into account the loss of jobs besides disruption to lives and livelihood that a cataclysmic wave of the pandemic can cause.
ALL CITIZENS SHOULD BE VACCINATED FREE OF COST BY THE YEAR END. THE TARGET IS STIFF BUT DOABLE IF IMPLEMENTED THROUGH PANCHAYATS AND MUNICIPALITIES
The writer, a former Haryana minister, is the Tosham Congress MLA. Views expressed are personal