Covid 19 ready

Covid 19 ready

Government’s assurances to citizens must be backed by preparedness on all fronts.

The two fresh coronavirus cases confirmed yesterday serve India an urgent warning to prepare for a wider Covid-19 outbreak or get caught napping. Government has much work to do in many areas, other than continuing screening at airports and seaports. Success at containing the virus rests on ramping up the public healthcare and disaster management apparatus to go beyond providing conventional medical treatment to taking leadership at multiple levels including information dissemination, community outreach, preparing standard operating protocols, readying isolation wards, volunteer training and stockpiling medicines and protective equipment.

The role of information dissemination and awareness cannot be overstated at this time. China’s greatest folly was its harebrained attempt to keep the outbreak under wraps. Effective communication between state and citizens will build trust, avoid the need for coercive measures and keep rumours and panic at bay. Simple preventive habits like washing hands multiple times and keeping them away from the face, nose and eyes at other times needs to be drilled into people through mass media platforms. Community outreach will also pave the way for capacity building. With nearly 80% of the cases exhibiting mild symptoms and only home quarantine needed, India must mobilise its strengths in local selfgovernment and NGO sector. This will prevent overcrowding and spare limited hospital facilities for patients in need of critical care.

Medical personnel will be at the frontlines of an outbreak. Easing their burden will rest on how others in government and civil society can effectively complement their efforts. All these entities will have to prepare for disruptions like food and commodity shortages to large-scale panic and even racist attacks. Failure to ensure public order and social harmony will be grievously costly. Moreover, the best way to cushion against Covid-19’s disruptive economic impact is to concentrate efforts on containing it and boosting public health, rather than spending on other stimulus measures.

Talk of benefiting from disruption in global supply chains and companies reducing overdependence on China is premature. India must instead ponder how it allowed its API (active pharmaceutical ingredients) industry necessary for drug manufacturing to go to seed since the 1990s. Reversing bad economic decision making of the past two decades and ensuring long-term competitiveness could be a start. For a country sidetracked from pressing governance issues for several months by citizenship quarrels, the Covid-19 outbreak is a warning to end all division and diversions.