Witnessing a surge in COVID cases, the Delhi Government has put in place new triage rules but this may not be enough
Increasing instances of potential Coronavirus patients lying for hours outside the hospital before admission or even dying before they see a doctor in Delhi are being shared on social media. This has grabbed media attention, too. Unfortunately, some are using such instances to score political points about Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s handling of the pandemic. But the fact remains that despite the national capital boasting about having the best urban healthcare infrastructure in the country, it is getting thoroughly overwhelmed. It would have been so no matter who or which party had been in power. With more than 25,000 cases, Delhi, like Mumbai, is seeing a surge given its dense population as a result of India’s uneven development over the past seven decades. While the virus has started a conversation around public health and the lack of it all across the country, it will not take away the fact that despite Indian doctors and nurses being at the forefront of treatment across the world, Indian healthcare itself is all but a flaky shell.
As such, India should have begun large-scale testing weeks ago when more testing kits were made available. While testing numbers have gradually increased now, given the country’s population, it remains woefully inadequate. Those who want to be tested are denied one. Even those patients who need to go to a hospital for other emergency procedures are not being tested, either at admission or when discharged. The Delhi Government’s decision to “triage” all those patients who show signs of COVID-19 symptoms will not be effective until more tests are done. This will also help it understand the future course of action. Should school yards and stadia be turned into treatment centres or not? To what extent should the lockdown be eased? Where should non-critical patients be sent? And if there is a substantial number of asymptomatic carriers, can Delhi or any other city consider opening up of malls and restaurants and add to a bursting bulge? There is a prevailing anxiety as doctors and virologists warn that public engagement should be minimal in the viral storm months of June and July. The fact of the matter is that in India and in other countries across the world, the response by Governments to the pandemic has been woeful. Of course, hindsight is 20-20 (ironically) but many things should have been and could have been done differently. One thing that can still be done differently and that should be done is to test, test and test to establish a pattern. At the same time data must be used to calibrate further actions. There will be many more cases in the next few days of people dying from the virus and many more tragic stories will be written about. The question that Kejriwal and, in fact, every other Chief Minister in India needs to ask is: When will these stories end? By July or by 2021?