Govt to spend...

The financial package was desperately needed to boost ICU infrastructure, said an expert. “It is needed by many under-served states that don’t have adequatelyequipped district hospitals and state medical colleges. Most Covid-19 deaths are from severe respiratory illness, and when ICU care is not adequate, the mortality rate is higher. This badlyneeded push will help build an intensive care set up across states and help in disease management in the long run,” said Dr Randeep Guleria, director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences who is part of the national task on Covid-19.

In around 81% Covid-19 cases, patients recover on their own, according to a study of the first 44,672 cases confirmed by the Chinese Center for Disease Control published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Around 14% people have severe disease, including pneumonia and shortness of breath, while the virus causes critical disease including respiratory failure, septic shock and multi-organ failure in about 5% of patients who need ICU care to survive.

“The priority is to save lives, the PM has made that clear. At least 5% of Covid-19 patients will require ventilators, and in the Indian context that’s a lot of numbers. We have to step up,” said Dr Amit Singh, associate professor at the Centre for Infectious Disease Research at Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science.

Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba directed all states on Sunday to identify at least one hospital to exclusively treat coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases. Nine states have submitted a list of dedicated public hospitals and isolation wards across both public and private hospitals to the Centre. Instead of building new hospitals, strengthening existing health services and filling in the gaps in staff, equipment and medicines would appear to be the focus. “We may not be able to build new hospitals, but we are exploring the model of (creating) a low cost ICU with a cardiac monitor, ventilator, pulse oximeter, and oxygen cylinder to treat people if cases rise very quickly,” said Dr Dilip Mavlankar, director of Gandhinagar’s Indian Institute of Public Health.

Public health economists say the money may not be enough, but it’s a start. “If the number of cases and death go up exponentially, then ₹400-500 crore per state is not going to be enough. I would take this more as an emergency fund at the moment to be distributed to states to put in place preventive measures. If we manage to contain the disease then this might be enough but not if the numbers increase exponentially. India doesn’t have the resources to cope in case we go the China way,” said Dr Sakthivel Selvaraj, director, health economics, financing and policy, PHFI.

India’s low doctor-population ratio of 1:1,457, against the WHO recommended norm of 1:1,000, also needs to be improved, said experts. “We need a lot of parttime staff and general physicians. There are lots of private doctors who do not have enough work, we need them on an ad hoc basis. We needed nurses too, many trained nurses don’t work because of low pay. We need human resources,” said Dr Mavlankar. “Buying equipment is easy, what is much harder is building human resources trained in intensive care and use of personal protection equipment. ICUS are both equipment intensive and human resource intensive. You need to have good high-end ventilators, good monitors and the people — nurses, paramedics and technicians — to manage it. Ideally, there should be one nurse for every ICU bed, it is not just about putting a person on a bed,” said Dr Guleria.

Prime Minister Modi also urged the private sector, including private labs and private hospitals, to work with government in this time of crisis. Private labs have begun testing for Covid-19, and many private hospitals are setting up isolation wards to treat Covid-19 patients. “I don’t think the money is sufficient, but it is much needed. It will largely go towards augmenting infrastructure. They have also announced Covid-19 hospitals and this money will be needed to create the space, get equipment and manpower. In case a situation arises where the public-sector facilities falls short, the government can very well commandeer private hospitals,” said Dr MC Misra, former AIIMS director and president and vice chancellor Mahatma Gandhi University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Jaipur.

In order to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens, hundreds of locals blocked the arterial road no. 13 A — that connects south Delhi with Noida — at Shaheen Bagh on December 15, 2019. In the three months that passed by, protesters refused to vacate the spot unless CAA is repealed. The CAA fast-tracks citizenship for people belonging to non-muslim minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.

The police also cleared the anti-caa protest sites at Jamia Millia Islamia and Hauz Rani at Malviya Nagar. Installations, including a map of India made with a wire mesh, a replica of India Gate, and a makeshift library at the bus stop, which had become symbols of the protest at Shaheen Bagh were also removed.

Ritu Kaushik, one of the protesters at Shaheen Bagh, said the movement will continue on social media till the epidemic continues. “Despite the Shaheen Bagh roadblock case pending in Supreme Court, the police dismantled the protest area. They could have only asked protesters to leave, why did they dismantle the tents, stage, benches and installations, and take them to a police station?,” Kaushik said.

On Tuesday, protesters said there was a heavy mobilisation of police personnel in the early hours of Tuesday. “They blocked some of the lanes. Around 5.30-6 am, police came and forcibly evicted us. Since we were protesting in shifts, I was not present when the police came,” said Prakash Devi, another protester.

The graffiti on the walls and gates of Jamia Millia Islamia was also removed on Tuesday. While protesters blame police for the action, officials have denied any role in it. “It must be the job of civic authorities who could be painting the walls. We aren’t aware of any such work,” a senior police officer said, requesting anonymity.

SDMC public relations officer, Radha Krishnan, however, said they were not involved in whitewashing the graffiti. “The big roads near Shaheen Bagh don’t come under us. It comes under the Public Works Department (PWD),” he said.

Officials of the PWD did not respond to calls for comment. for a long time in a sensitive state like Jammu and Kashmir is not in the interest of either the people of Jammu and Kashmir or the government,” a third senior official said.

Apni Party — a new political formation comprising members of PDP, Congress and NC and which has the backing of the Centre — is at the forefront of a new movement to regain statehood, protection of land rights, and employment for locals. The J&K administration in consultation with the Union home ministry is expected to notify a new domicile policy soon. The new domicile policy will protect the sale of land, especially agricultural land, reserve jobs and seats in educational institutions for locals.

The release of Omar Abdullah was also been welcomed by Kashmir watchers. “Omar Abdullah release will help in further normalising the political situation in the Valley. All those detained under PSA, especially those were detained outside the state, should also be released and escorted back to the Valley,” Avinash Mohanani, who headed the Kashmir desk at the ministry of home affairs, said.

The PDP welcomed Abdullah’s release.

“We welcome the release of Omar Abdullah. We have always been requesting the release of political leadership. Considering the situation in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, we also request the Centre to release PDP president Mehbooba Mufti at the earliest. There’s already a lockdown in the country and it is high time that she is also freed,” PDP general secretary Ved Mahajan said in Jammu.