India is giving Covid-19 a free run

Though health experts had repeatedly warned of a more serious and severe second wave of Covid-19, the absence of a clear and cogent strategy both by the Centre and the Karnataka government has given the virus a free run. Though the government had the benefit of hindsight after what the country experienced during the first wave and had enough and more time to put an actionable plan in place, it has miserably failed to rise to the occasion. Even as new cases scale one peak after another, the country faces an acute shortage of vaccines, oxygen, essential drugs and hospital beds. The vaccination drive is marked by chaos and a total lack of foresight right from the word go. The Co-Win portal which has been malfunctioning ever since its launch shows all vaccination slots as full, while in reality, many hospitals are running empty. Vaccines were exported without any consideration for domestic demand and the failure to ramp up production in the interim has led to a scarcity when we need it the most. The import of foreign vaccines has also been approved belatedly, after available stocks have already been booked by other countries. This explains why only a small percentage of the population has been fully inoculated even 90 days after the drive began.

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Remdesivir, an anti-viral injection that has been found to be effective in treating early stages of Covid, is in short supply across the country. In Karnataka, private hospitals have reported zero availability while government facilities have limited stock, leading to a thriving black market where a single injection costs Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000. To make matters worse, the government has decided to discontinue providing medicine kits to patients under home isolation. In the absence of adequate training, there are also instances where high-risk steroids have been prescribed to patients even where it is absolutely unnecessary. With thousands of civil defence personnel being relieved of their Covid-related duties, Karnataka has also been forced to scale down the successful model it had evolved in the early stages of the pandemic to enforce quarantine and containment measures. In short, it is a complete mess.

Besides, the callous attitude towards large gatherings minus any precautions at Kumbh Mela and election rallies is nothing short of criminal and the assurance that strict protocols will follow once these events end, is akin to locking the stables after the horses have bolted. If the positive cases are now spiralling beyond control leading to a possible medical disaster, the government has none to blame but its own mismanagement and inept handling of the situation, though the warning signs were visible all over the horizon.