| | July 20209ments have issued advisories to all industries against taking actions that would adversely impact the livelihood of their employees, the employers have been forced to take steps to remain financially viable and therefore take unavoidable ac-tions to cut costs wherever feasible.Invocation of the NDMA has also forced some of the state gov-ernments to take-over few of the private hospitals to test and treat Covid patients. Currently, there are only more than 5000 reported cases of Coronavirus patients in the country, one of the lowest infection rates globally. This has been pos-sible because of enforcement of early lockdown by the central gov-ernment. But the number could go up dramatically if adequate pre-cautionary measures are not taken across the country. Enforcement of lockdown is one such effective measure; 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 thou-sands of lives across the globe. But any religious or public congrega-tions 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 govern-ments in containment of the dis-ease. Many private hospitals have even had large scale infections of their staff because of inadequacy of PPE & other protective gear and also for not following the laid down Covid protocols. Many state governments are therefore estab-lishing exclusive Covid hospitals to treat Covid patients. Private players are helping the state gov-ernments 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 con-tinues for long, it will have serious consequences for the affected pa-tients 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 un-dergo a drastic change. Humanity has endured plague, SARS, Ebola and several other debilitating epi-demics down the ages. But what has emerged is that we do not prob-ably yet have a synergized global response to such pandemics. Oth-erwise, 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, pro-active 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 main-taining `social distancing'. IoT and AI, if harnessed better in fu-ture, could have major impact on screening large scale population, tracking the infection, prioritizing the use and allocation of resources, and designing targeted responses, in case of a fast spreading pandem-ic such as Coronavirus. Indian response so far has won worldwide acclaim, but we should not become complacent and en-sure Coronavirus-free India soon and work united as a nation to com-bat this unprecedented epidemic. Critical shortage of PPEs, drugs, medical devices have further ex-acerbated the situation, something we need to plan for any future pandemics. Severe shortfalls in doctors and trained nurses, techni-cians and allied healthcare staff is another challenge that we need to overcome in the coming decades to manage pandemics more efficient-ly in future.Only strong global leadership could ensure victory over the dis-ease with a proactive & synergistic response driven by the WHO with active support from rest of the countries to manage such deadly epidemics in future. IF THE LOCKDOWN CONTINUES FOR LONG, IT WILL HAVE SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES FOR THE AFFECTED PATIENTS OR FOR THOSE REQUIRING URGENT SURGERIES OR MEDICAL TREATMENTS
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