| | JUNE 20209of early lockdown by the central government. But the number could go-up dramatically if adequate precautionary measures are not taken across the country. Enforcement of lockdown is one such effective measure, and there are many more. Unfortunately, awareness about community health is very low in the country, as is about personal hygiene and sanitation. India still has not reached community spread level of the debilitating disease, which has already claimed thousands of lives across the globe. But any religious or public congregations need to be avoided at all costs to contain further spread of the disease.It is the prime responsibility of every hospital in the country to support central and state governments in containment of the disease. Many private hospitals have even had large scale infections of their staff because of inadequacy of PPE and other protective gear and also for not following the laid-down Covid protocols. Many state governments are therefore establishing exclusive Covid hospitals to treat Covid patients. Private players are helping the state governments in this capacity building exercise, a kind of PPP initiative. It is the responsibility of central and state governments to help private providers with financial support and incentives to remain viable while extending this help in this hour of need.Coronavirus will have long term impact on the global economy in general, but healthcare industry in particular. Depressed business conditions could force some of the providers to either partially scale-down or completely close their businesses. If the lockdown continues for long, it will have serious consequences for the affected patients or for those requiring urgent surgeries or medical treatments. It will also affect the livelihood of employees. So, what will change after the disease is conquered?For one, our outlook towards the disease management will undergo a drastic change. Humanity has endured plague, SARS, Ebola and several other debilitating epidemics down the ages. But what has emerged is that we do not probably yet have a synergized global response to such pandemics. Otherwise, we should have been able to contain the disease early in Italy, US and Spain as soon as we got to know the scale of the problem. WHO too failed to play a proactive role in early control of the spread, with disastrous consequences to global health and economies, hence the understandable global outrage against them. We could have saved many lives by early, proactive and unified global response. Working from home will now have a different meaning!We should harness technology to productive use. Simple things such as telemedicine have found favour with clinicians to extend healthcare delivery, while maintaining `social distancing'. IoT and AI, if harnessed better in future, could have major impact on screening large scale population, tracking the infection, prioritizing the use & allocation of resources, and designing targeted responses in case of a fast spreading pandemic such as Coronavirus. Indian response so far has won worldwide acclaim, but we should not become complacent and ensure Coronavirus-free India soon and work united as a nation to combat this unprecedented epidemic.Critical shortage of PPEs, drugs, and medical devices has further exacerbated the situation, something we need to plan for any future pandemics. Severe shortfalls in doctors, trained nurses, technicians and allied healthcare staff is another challenge that we need to overcome in the coming decades to manage pandemics more efficiently in future. Only strong global leadership could ensure victory over the disease with a proactive & synergistic response driven by the WHO with active support from rest of the countries to manage such deadly epidemics in future. IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF CENTRAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS TO HELP PRIVATE PROVIDERS WITH FINANCIAL SUPPORT AND INCENTIVES TO REMAIN VIABLE WHILE EXTENDING THIS HELP IN THIS HOUR OF NEED
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