What India needs to overcome its hidden crisis

Damage control

As the humanitarian crisis in India worsens, immediate and aggressive measures are needed to stabilize the situation and gain time to increase vaccine production. The crisis is already there spreads They will need to transcend India’s borders and coordinate global action.

Speed ​​is critical. Like Michael Ryan of the World Health Organization indicate In March 2020, “The biggest mistake is not to move … speed exceeds perfection.” Last week, governments in the UK, EU, Russia and US countries promised to help, but they risk giving too little or too late.

Medical oxygen is very scarce in India, with a daily estimate need 2 million oxygen cylinders that exceed domestic production capacity. India also needs medicines, hospital beds, ventilators, personal protective equipment, hidden supplies for testing and other basic health products. It is likely that more health workers will be needed to expand India soon, as they are working under tremendous pressure.

If the US has it he committed supplies and first aid kits for the manufacture of oxygen cylinders, oxygen concentrators and generating units, antiviral medicines, testing instruments and vaccines arrived In India on Friday, April 30. The EU has it turned on its Civil Protection Mechanism for the delivery of oxygen and medicines. The first aid shipments to the UK arrived on Tuesday, April 27, and included oxygen concentrators and fans.

This response to global aid will also not prevent a historical tragedy. Projections show probably by mid-May we will have more than 12,000 daily deaths in India and about a million deaths in August.

Therefore, the central governments and states of India must immediately take aggressive public health measures to eradicate the virus. These may include travel restrictions, workplace and school closures, and social disengagement and mask-wearing requirements, as well as social and financial support for the most vulnerable populations.

Such measures are being implemented all over India, and in some cases have been weakened by political leaders. Many regions of India, including Delhi, Karnataka and Maharashtra, have recently done so imposed strict limits on travel and movement, but there is still no national vision.

Increasing the manufacturing capacity of vaccines will also be key to the long-term spread of the virus in India and its spread around the world. This will require a coordinated global effort between companies and governments.

Slowly, the Indian government has begun to wake up to the situation. Payments for recent advanced purchases will allow Bharat Biotech to double its production capacity, reaching 20 million doses per month in June and 60 million per month in August. The Serum Institute also expects to produce 100 million doses per month for half a year. But this is not a short-term solution. Unfortunately, vaccines will not solve the acute crisis, and there are currently not a large number of vaccines to be imported into India. The U.S. will also have to commit to distributing 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine worldwide in a matter of months.