The World Health Organization (WHO) has already declared it a pandemic and has called upon the countries to ensure that a proper healthcare response is given to the situation while as USA’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is monitoring all the patients with rash illness even as the healthcare providers have been put on high alert across the country. As of now, the disease seems dangerous as there are just 2 vaccines available for the disease—only in the US—while the stock of the same also remains limited. This means, the production will take time, the transportation of the same to other countries as well as the manufacturing the same at the domestic level will also take time; till then, there is a need for every country, especially India, which is these days witnessing an increase in the COVID-19 cases, to come up with a plan: aimed at identifying the possible spreaders, isolating them, ensuring the healthy population adheres to the necessary SOPs issued in this regard.
Even as the center has deputed several multidisciplinary medical teams to Kerala to ascertain the situation and assist the state in the containment process, a detailed, nationwide plan to deal with the disease—which is possibly going to have more cases in India in the coming days—continues to be missing from the scene. The health authorities in the country must have learned several lessons while they dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, the time has come for executing those lessons on the ground, plugging all the gaps, and ensuring that there is a nationwide response to the disease, if it starts spreading further. Rather, the Government need not wait for its spread any further; holistic action needs to be taken right now because, on one extreme, the disease is self-limiting and lasts for 2-4 weeks, but on another extreme, if CDC is to be believed, even pregnant women can spread the virus to their fetus through the placenta. Better act now!
