The number of COVID-19 testing labs in India has increased from one in January to 1370 today. Also, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has recently announced that citizens can access a lab anywhere within three hours of travel time. The minister has stated in a virtual meeting with the regional directors of WHO that India’s quick and multi-level institutional tackling of COVID-19 helped in lowering the number of cases and deaths per million. He has added that the country had been preparing for the pandemic right after China notified to WHO about it in the month of January.
Increase In Daily Handling Capacity Of COVID-19 Cases In Hospitals
As per reports, the daily handling capacity of COVID-19 cases in Indian hospitals has increased to almost 35 times. The health minister said, “India’s proactive and graded multi-level institutional response to COVID-19 made it possible to have very low cases per million and deaths per million in spite of having a high population density and low fractional GDP spending and per capita doctor and hospital bed availability as compared to other developed countries,” During the lockdown, the officials have proactively augmented healthcare infrastructure India to fight rising coronavirus cases, as per the government. Meanwhile, some everyday people went the extra mile and stepped up to help the needy amid the pandemic.
Indians Anywhere Can Access A Lab Within Three Hours Travel Time
Harsh Vardhan added, “The lockdown period was utilised to quickly augment our healthcare infrastructure to support the growing number of COVID-19 cases. We were able to increase our isolation beds more than 34 times and ICU beds over 20 times. From one lab in January, India has 1,370 labs today. Indians anywhere can access a lab within three hours travel time. Thirty-three of the 36 states and UTs exceed WHO’s recommendation of testing 140 people per million per day,”
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Telemedicine Facilities And Health System Preparedness Package
Telemedicine arrangements at AIIMS Delhi aided in identifying the root causes of fatality. Their efforts have helped to significantly reduce the mortality rate from 3.33 per cent on June 18 to 2.11 per cent on August 3. The Centre has also released the second instalment of the COVID Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package of ₹890.32 crores to states and Union Territories.
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The country is gradually paving the way for flattening the curve of coronavirus cases. Let’s all co-operate with the government and the frontliners and follow the protocols of safety and social distancing to combat the virus spread. On that note, here is the recovery story of the first COVID-19 patient in Delhi: