New Delhi: India is capable of containing the infection of Novel Corona Virus and prevent it from becoming a community infection with the existing infrastructure, said a top expert on public health issues. He said that the government is trying to prevent the entry of fresh cases of the virus and their carriers in the country so that the country gets some breathing space to trace and handle the existing cases.
There were more than 80 confirmed cases in the country by Friday evening and the health ministry confirmed that the death of a 76-year-old patient in Karnataka on Thursday was due to Novel Corona Virus (Covid-19).
However, India is relatively safe than other countries like China, Italy and Iran where the virus has caused havoc on public health system, forcing the governments to completely lock down parts of their countries.
So far, the Covid-19 virus has claimed more than 5,100 lives across the world forcing the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare it a global pandemic as the virus has spread to more than 130 countries.
While China, where the first case was detected in September last year, has reported the highest number of fatalities as the Covid-19 virus has so far killed more than 3,100 people, Italy confirmed death of more than 1,000 people, followed by Iran where the virus killed more than 500 people.
Health experts like Dr K Srinath Reddy, who has vast experience in public health issues in India and abroad, says that Novel Corona Virus is a milder strain of other known viruses of the same family and it is less lethal in comparison with other viruses like H5N1 and SARS which were very lethal.
"It is estimated that it kills only 2% of the people who are affected, and in any case a maximum of 15-20% people develop some severe form of disease which might warrant hospitalization," said Dr K Srinath Reddy, President of Public Health Foundation of India, a Delhi based not-for profit organisation active in the field of public health and policy issues.
He said mainly elderly people or people with co-existing disease will require hospitalization or those healthcare professionals who have been repeatedly exposed to the virus and the overall number of people requiring hospitalization will still be low.
"Many of these people can be managed at home with home quarantine whether the diagnosis is fully established or not. But even if you want to treat them presumptively as the cases of Covid, majority of them can actually be managed at home or in primary healthcare centres," Dr. Reddy told ETV Bharat.
"I believe that we can manage them with our existing infrastructure," he observed.
He said there are enough labs in the country to diagnose the infection of Novel Corona Virus as the government has set up more than 50 labs after the outbreak of the virus in China.
Earlier there was only one lab in the country in Pune to diagnose the cases of Covid-19 but the government ramped up the infrastructure by setting up more labs and quarantine facilities to contain the highly infectious virus that spreads easily.
Centre must help states to deal with Corona virus (H2)
Dr Reddy, who has been on many expert panels of the World Health Organisation, says that states need support from the Union government to tide over the crisis.
States have been working with the Union health ministry to contain the spread of virus in their areas. Several states have shut their schools for the month and also imposed restrictions on public places like restaurants, shopping malls, movie theaters and other public places. In some cases, state governments also directed private companies to ask their employees to work from home to avoid infection.
"I believe that we ought to be able to use our existing facilities to the maximum advantage. However, all these services, whether in terms of primary health care or in terms of hospitals are not uniformly well developed across all states," he said.
"There will be some difference between the states and their ability to manage and that is where the Centre has to step in to provide more services to states that require additional help," said Dr Reddy.
He, however, also warned that the country will face some challenges if the virus spreads to different parts of the country.
“We will certainly face some challenges if it becomes a community infection. We may actually prevent it from becoming a community infection,” said Dr Reddy.
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