More than 16 months have passed when the first case of Covid-19 was found in India. India has witnessed the first wave somewhere in April and the second wave started in February and ended in June. Many people lost their loved ones and many suffered. India's health system collapsed as India was making new records every day in new active cases of Covid-19.
People didn't trust doctors, doctors were hurt and were treated disrespectfully. There was a financial crash, shortage of remdesivir injections. The oxygen cylinders and ventilator beds were in great demand. The shortage of oxygen cylinders was clearly visible. What could have been done to manage such situations? What can be done to avoid such situations in the coming future? The points below are some of the ways if taken into consideration can help reduce the spread of Covid-19 and India might have to see less number of Covid waves.
1. Imposing strict lockdown restrictions even after the number of positive cases are reduced
When the number of new positive cases started to decrease after the first wave, the government started easing lockdown restrictions due to which people got careless. People were roaming without masks and sanitizers, not following social distancing. All this led to the second deadly Covid wave. Until India gets fully vaccinated, the government should not ease lockdown rules and should strictly monitor them. This will help to lower the spread of the virus.
2. Covid-19 testing at airports
When we travel from one country to another, there is a high chance that we may be carrying the virus. If people are tested at airports for the virus then we can prevent any new variant of the virus from entering our country. If tested positive, then the person should be directly transferred to the hospital. This will also help to reduce the spread of viruses in our country. People can also be shifted under strict supervision in quarantine for 14 days. It should be noted that in a pandemic, we should travel only when it is too important.
3. Converting non-working trains to ventilator beds
When the Covid wave is at its peak, there is a shortage of beds. The medical infrastructure gets collapsed. Government stops all railway facilities to curb the spread of Covid-19. The stationary trains can be converted to beds for Covid-19 patients. So, if the government implements the conversion of stationary trains to Covid beds then people will not suffer and appropriate medications can be given.
4. Vaccination drives from home-to-home
Vaccination is the one and the only solution to make India Covid-19 free. In India, poor people don't have internet facilities and they don't have proper knowledge about online systems. The government has done online booking for vaccination slots, but some of the poor are deprived of internet facilities. So if the vaccine is given by reaching door to door, then vaccination can be accomplished at a great pace.
5. Reducing politics regarding Covid-19
During this tough time of pandemic, we all should stand together to fight rather than doing politics. We have seen great politics in vaccine distribution, oxygen cylinders, ventilator beds, remdesivir injections and many more. Injections were sold at higher prices and the needy patients may have been deprived of this. This needs to be stopped to fight Covid-19 together.
6. Covid-19 testing kits for home use
When we observe some symptoms of Covid-19 like fever, loss of taste and smell, headache, etc, we approach testing centers. Every day a huge number of samples need to be tested for Covid-19. This increases crowd at testing centers and workload on government also increases. If appropriate kits are designed that will show whether we are Covid positive or negative, it will help people to test themselves from home and to take appropriate medication.
7. Increasing number of oxygen plants
The second wave showed an incredible demand for oxygen cylinders. Due to difficulty in breathing, Covid infected patients need oxygen in huge amounts, so if oxygen production is increased by installing more plants, it would help to fight the problem of oxygen cylinders. Certainly number of deaths will be lowered.
8. Donating unused and non-expired medicines
In our homes, we have medicines like paracetamol, crocin and other pain killers which we bring from the medical shops and some of them remain unused. We can give those tablets to the needy ones or we can donate the medicines to organizations like MedsForMore. MedsForMore is a non-profit organization started by Indian Doctors. We can donate our extra unused and unexpired medicines and the volunteers distribute these medicines to rural, tribal areas and villages.
